Halloween

Aaah Halloween. This year it was almost a bust!! We had the swine flu the week of Halloween, and I didn't think Maya would make it to her school party. Fortunately for all of us, she did!! Now onto bigger and better things, like CHRISTMAS!!


The whole crew

Our two year old monsters!! Jensen didn't like his hat.

Wow.....

While we were driving home from Target this morning, Collin and Maya were talking about a fire drill they had at their school this week. They were saying how different the alarm sounded at the new school.

Collin then tells me that they are going to practice a lock down next week!! It kind of took me by surprise. I asked him what they were going to do. He told me that they had to lock all of the doors, cover all of the windows and hide under their desks. Then the principal would call 911. I asked him why they would need to do this, and he tells me "In case a bad guy gets in the school." I was really surprised, but it's good that the schools have a plan in case something terrible like that happens!! All I know is when I was growing up, we NEVER did anything like that!! Oh how times are changing...

The Animal Farm at Thanksgiving Point

Jensen LOVES the animal farm. So I decided to take him a couple of days ago. He was such a good boy!! We took the stroller, but he decided he wanted to walk so he could get to the animals to feed them. It was so much fun to have some one on one time with him at a place that he enjoys!

First day of school pictures

Collin and Maya had a great first day of school!! They both like their teachers and are adjusting to going to school again. Isn't Maya's haircut DIVINE?!?

Check!!!

List of things to do when the kids go back to school:

1. CRY!! CHECK
2. Dance around the house laughing hysterically about my new found freedom... CHECK!!
3. Update blog... Hmmmmm

The kids went back to school on Thursday!! Maya started first grade, and Collin started third grade. We went on Monday evening to the new school and met their teachers. I think they are going to have a great year!!
I can't believe how fast the summer flew by!! We had a great couple of months swimming, playing with friends, having picnics, going to the park, going up to Erin's cabin, fishing, all kinds of fun stuff!!

We did have one trip to the hospital this summer. Collin decided that it would be a brilliant idea to go down the stairs INSIDE a round rubbermaid bin. As he climbed in, he told Maya that she couldn't get in with him because it would be too dangerous. He launched himself off the top step, rolled down the stairs, and landed head first on the wood floor at the bottom of the stairs. Now, I was in the shower when all of this was happening, so this is Maya's account of what happened!! Apparently he hit his head so hard that he blacked out for a little bit. Maya came running upstairs screaming that Collin had hit his head, and me being the mother of the year, I wasn't too concerned!! So I finished up what I was doing and went to check on Collin. When I went into his room, he was lying on his bed as white as a sheet!! He was dizzy and seeing stars. I called the nurse and she told us to come in right away. The Doctor gave him the once over and told us that he had a mild concussion and sent us on our way with instructions to call if he got a really bad headache or started throwing up like crazy. I took him home and in about an hour he was doing both these things!! I made another call to the pediatrician, and it was off to the hospital to get a CT scan!! Long story short, his hard head protected his brains. BOYS!!!

These next couple of weeks will find us getting back to “normal” life. A lot of one-on- one time with Jensen. He will defiantly enjoy that!! And reclaiming my house after months of sand, popsicles, and other summer festivities!!

Update blog…CHECK!!

Dance!!!

Maya did such a great job in her dance recital this year!! They danced to The Jungle Book "Bare Necessities" and it was so much fun!! She had so much fun, and knew the whole dance!! I had a proud mommy moment, and I'm not gonna lie, I almost cried! We moved her to a new studio this year, and she has really improved. She is turning into quite the little dancer! Her favorite part of recitals is getting flowers and going out for ice cream when it is over!

Rain....

It is pretty rainy here today. As I was getting lunch on the table, I said "Look at the rain". Collin goes "I want to see how fast it is". So he opens up the back door and sticks his hand out for a minute. He comes back in and says "Yeah, that's about 20 miles an hour".

Our house backs a field, and the farmer just moved the cows back into the field. As long as we have lived here, whenever it rains, all of the cows line up in a row...
I LOVE the cows, and I am happy to see them back!!

Happy Happy Birthday to Maya!!!

My sweet girl turned SIX yesterday!! Where did the time go?!? Before I know it she will be sixteen! We had such a fun day yesterday. She woke up at 6:30 BEGGING us to open her presents. We held her off until about 8:30-- she was SO excited about all of her loot!!


Her favorite birthday present was her American Girl doll. Can I just say that it is seriously the CUTEST doll I have ever seen? I would have done anything for a doll like that when I was little!! She kept bugging me to get her one, which is very surprising, because Maya isn't really a doll kinda girl!! So we ordered a Just Like You doll. You can get the same hair color, eye color, freckles, earrings, and so on and so forth!! She has been carrying it around since she opened it yesterday. It makes my heart happy! After breakfast, Dan took Maya and Collin to Bounce and Skate. Jensen was sick the night before, so I had to stay home with him. SAD!! They had a lot of fun and were definitely tired when they got home!!

Here are some of my favorite things about Miss Maya

She is such a sweet little girl. She wants everyone to be happy!

She loves to dance.

She loves to have a clean room, but HATES getting it that way!!

She loves treats and always has to have one when we go to the store.

She loves her brothers.

She loves to clean with Windex.

She gets excited about the same things that Collin does-- I don't know if she is really excited, but she pretends to be!!

We love you Maya!! Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

Disneyland, Yard Work, and Another Goodbye

These past three weeks have been filled with joy, sorrow, and everything in between!!

First off, Dan and I decided that it was time for us to take a vacation BY OURSELVES!! So, where do two adults with three children decide to go? Disneyland of course!! We took the kids last year, so we decided this year it was our turn. We had such a great time going on all of the rides!! I adore Disneyland. It is a place where you can go and be a kid again!!

Yep, we had fun. Notice the Italian Greyhound in the background. We took that picture for my parents!!

Because of the position Dan is in at work, they require him to take two weeks off in a row. So the week we got back was "working in the yard week"!! We built two garden boxes, a lovely pad for our garbage cans, and pulled a million and one weeds. It looks much better!!

Then on Saturday, as we were heading to WalMart to get some more garden stuff, Dan got the call... His sister had passed away. She was 38. So last week was filled with funeral arrangements and family time.

Can I just say that I am officially done with funerals and people dying? It has been an interesting week to look back and reflect on my own life and see where I am at. Dan and I have had many talks this week about where we go and what happens after this life. His dad passed away three years ago, and he had a baby sister die right after she was born. We are greatful for eternal families, and pray for Shannon's kids that they may find peace in this time of sadness.

Easter Festivities

The kids had so much fun on Easter. I have to say that it is one of my favorite holidays. On Saturday our neighborhood had a little Easter egg hunt at the park. The kids had a blast. Collin and Maya got a bunch of eggs. Jensen found one egg, threw it, and then started playing with a truck he found on the ground! Typical. That kid is in love with cars!! That evening we went to my parent's house to dye eggs.

On Easter morning, the kids woke up and found their Easter baskets.

Jensen was having an off day. Dan even had to bring him home from church because he was being so nasty in nursery!!

After church it was back up to my parent's house for Easter dinner and another Easter egg hunt!! The kids LOVE this tradition. My mom always makes things SO FUN!!

Jensen and Gracie. Seriously, the two sweetest faces I have ever seen!!

CUTE KIDS!! Jensen having a moment!!

Birthday Fun

Jensen started out his 2nd birthday by getting his "big" surprise.

As you can see by the smile on his face, he loved it!! That morning he started singing "Happy to you!!" We went to McDonalds for lunch, and played and played. After dinner the whole family came over to celebrate!

I thought he was so stinkin' cute opening his presents this year. He didn't even get into it at Christmas time, so I loved watching him rip the paper open to see what was inside!

Even Gracie was excited about this huge car set Grandpa and Baba gave him!!

YUM!!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!! We love you so much!!

Look who's TWO!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY little man!!

March 25, 2009

On March 25, 2009, my fantastic Danny turned 35 years old!! You sir, are an old man... We went to Cafe Rio, and had chocolate cake for dessert. For our birthdays and our anniversary this year, we are giving each other a trip to Disneyland in April, just the two of us. SO MUCH FUN!!

That night, my FarMor (grandma) passed away. She is back with FarFar. I have been struggling with my feelings about her passing. We went and visited her on Sunday afternoon, because my dad said that it was going to be soon. I wasn't able to go and see FarFar before he passed away last December, and I have always felt bad about that.
She is in a happier place now. Able to see her parents, sister, and husband. Free from the trials and hardships of this life. It has been hard to watch my dad go through this again. I think that is the saddest part of losing a grandparent. My dad is such an amazing man. He is so caring and thoughtful.
I love you FarMor. Thank you for all of the visits with endless cookies and Coke. You have shown your family unconditional love and support. Go and dance with FarFar until we see you again.

It's Friday Night.....

If you want to know what we did on Friday night, check out thedamfam.blogspot.com. I didn't bring my camera. It was FANTASTIC!!!

Not dead, not pregnant....

Just BUSY!! My lovely sister Erin and I were looking on KSL and we discovered an ad for some cabinets that were being taken out of apartments. So we got the BRILLIANT idea to refinish the cabinets and hang them in the laundry room. Sounds easy enough.
We got the cabinets and started sanding and sanding and painting and refinishing them. They turned out BEAUTIFUL!!
You can't have fantastic cabinets in a plain boring laundry room. So that turned into painting the laundry room. My laundry room make-over took a lot longer then I thought it would, but it was WELL worth it!!


This is the best picture I could get of the finished product! We still need to put crown molding above the cabinets, and get handles for them, but it is pretty much done. SUCH an improvement!

Are you pinching YOUR pennies??????

My fantastic neighbor introduced me to a website called pinchingyourpennies.com. I have been pinching my pennies for a couple of months now, and I can not believe the difference I have seen in my grocery bill!! My food storage is fuller now than it has ever been before (And let's be honest, that's not hard to do!). I always have had good intentions for building our food storage, but I have had a hard time knowing what to buy and when to buy it. This website tells you what the best deals are in the grocery stores each week.
Yesterday I went to Albertsons, and with all of my rewards and coupons, I got $304.59 worth of food for, drum roll please, $47.12!!!!! What?!?! It was crazy fun!! I know, I'm a dork, I get excited over these kinds of things!!
When I brought all of my groceries into the house, they filled my whole kitchen table, and half of my bar!! I was going to take a picture, but then Jensen started climbing all over the table trying to get the fruit snacks!!

On a Valentines Day, on a Valentines Daaaay

Our Valentines Day was very low key this year. Dan and I are planning a trip sometime this spring, so we decided to save the money on Valentines gifts.
We had my family over on Friday for our Friday Night Fun Night. It was so much fun!! We had dinner and played games with the kids. I love the fact that we can have so much fun together.
On Saturday morning I had a bunch of errands that I had to get done. I had to take the kids with me, and by the end of the trip I told them that I would take them to McDonalds if they would hold on for a few more minutes!! While they were playing in "The Playland" this nice lady asked me if my baby was a boy or a girl. What?!? He doesn't look like a girl AT ALL!! Although he did have on his red Valentines Day shirt that has a heart with flames around it and in the middle it says "Hunk of Burnin' Love!" So maybe that confused her...

Don't you love it when....

Your baby falls asleep in the car on the way home, sleeps for like five seconds, and as you are oh so carefully taking them upstairs and placing them in their cozy bed, their eyes pop open and they start talking to you? It makes for a fun afternoon! (HELP!!!!!)

Monkey hand and other random thoughts...

This weekend, I decided that we needed to rearrange the seats in our van. I thought this would be a simple task, because we only needed to move one seat over. WRONG!! We tried to remove the seat, and it got jammed. Collin and Maya were outside with us, and Collin kept saying "I know the answer to the puzzle, I know the answer to the puzzle!" We were not in the mood. I was trying to keep the mood light while we worked on trying to get this dumb seat out. So I asked Collin what he thought. He replied "Just wham it in!" It was so funny the way that he said it, we just laughed and laughed.


After the seat adventure, we told the kids we were going to go get them each a fish. Maya was thrilled until she realized that we were only going to get one fish bowl and put it downstairs. This did not fly with her, she wanted it in her room. She was whining, and whining, and carrying on. Maya gets pretty intense when she gets herself all wound up. So when we pulled into the parking lot she said, "I'm going to kick you guys when we get out." Dan and I stopped and started laughing and laughing!! She realized what a monster she was being, and she started laughing too!


Jensen loves to "help" me unload the dishwasher. His favorite part is helping me unload his bottles. A couple of nights ago he was helping me, and he was playing in the basket that holds all of the tops to the bottles. He started saying "Help, help" and walked over to Dan. He had stuck a piece to the bottle down inside the bottle and reached in to grab it, and his fist wouldn't fit through the opening. He would not let it go! We called him "monkey hand" after that story about the monkeys and the food and the monkeys won't let go of the food. Whatever, if you have heard the story, you will know what I'm talking about!!

Oh, I'm anemic!!

Okay, so I am so THRILLED!! I was talking to my parents a couple of weeks ago, because I had NO energy. I was always tired, and COLD!! I couldn't even walk upstairs without getting winded. I had a spacey head, and was dizzy. I blamed most of these symptoms on the medicine I take everyday. It was B A D. Well, my parents, being the brilliant people that they are put two and two together, and told me to start taking some iron supplements.
So the next day, I took one. I felt FANTASTIC!! Energy, no more space head, no more dizziness, all of my symptoms were gone. I haven't felt this good since I had Maya. It's been a couple of weeks, and I can't believe the difference in the way that I feel. Moral of the story, your parents are STILL always right...

Pizza Night

This year we have decided to spend Friday nights doing family things!! Last night, we made our own pizza!


We ended the night with a game of Ker Plunk, and cookie pizza!! A good time was had by all.

War Paint...

So Jensen has discovered a fun new thing. Coloring... with markers. He loves it. He will take me by the hand and lead me over to the cupboard saying "Color, color". He refuses to use crayons, he just throws them on the floor.

Being a good boy, keeping the colors on the paper.



I guess this is a good way to get a bath multiple times a day!!

Divine baby.

Been Busy!!

I haven't posted in a while due to the fact that I have started spring cleaning my house!! I love this time of year-- I know, I am a freak. I LOVE to throw stuff away and give things to the DI that no one has looked at in months. I also love to have a clean house, which is not an easy task with three crazy, active kids!
This week I went through my whole kitchen. Top to bottom. I got rid of a TON of junk. This afternoon, I painted one of the walls in our dining room a rusty red color. It took FIVE coats but it turned out FANTASTIC!!

Collin gets baptized

On Saturday, January 3rd, Collin was baptized. It was a VERY cold morning, and we had to be up at the stake center at 8:15. This would be easy if I didn't have to get three kids, myself, and Dan out the door with a PERFECTLY spotless house!! It was such a wonderful experience. Dan and Collin practiced what he was supposed to do for about a week so Collin wouldn't be nervous. He was so sweet that morning.

After he was baptized, Dan confirmed him a member of the church. He is such a good boy! I am so proud of him. We got him his own set of scriptures for his baptism, and he has been so interested in reading them. He is so proud of himself and will show me where he is reading in the Book of Mormon. I love you Collin and I know that you made the right decision in getting baptized.

Mom, I'm ready for Collin's baptism!!!!!

Last night we were going through Collin's ties to find one that matched his new baptism clothes. Dan found one that was Jensen's size and clipped it on his shirt. When we tried to take the tie off, he started crying, so we left it on. He wore it for most of the evening. I love this baby!!!