We wish you a

A few Christmas card pictures...we picked this one.

Will was the star of this show with his favorite new cross-eyed look! Love you Will. What would we do without your humor?
Bridget is often holding Jonah on her hip like in this one. She's so good with him. And Luke is just about as tall as me...he's actually wearing my boots if you can believe it. Crazy how fast they grow.

Too devoted?

Tonight Will and I were chatting by the Christmas tree and he said,
"The only thing I don't like about Santa is that he wears red and white...that's Ute's colors Mom!"
"I think he should wear green and white....NO! Blue and white with a --du, na--Y on his shirt!!"
I just had to laugh.


Also, the day after Thanksgiving we were walking around Temple Square enjoying the lights and as we passed a guy in a U of U hat he yelled, "Oh, no!....UTAH!!!"
I just tried to move along as quickly as possible.

Luke has made quite a devoted little side-kick fan out of Will.

Ma'am

Adam was not home for dinner and as is usual when he is not here, I serve the kids their dinner at the bar stools and I stand across from them to eat. Tonight after they sat down with their food and we prayed Luke asked me if I was eating. I said yes but had not yet dished up my food. Then, standing up and motioning toward his stool he said something like, "Excuse me Ma'am, but would you like to take a seat?" He offered me not only his seat but his plate of food too. Shock and awe and shock and awe. Then, closing my jaw I took a seat! I LOVE YOU LUKE! Thank-you!

P.S. Family Home Evening two weeks ago was on manners. I didn't think anything sunk in....boy was I ever wrong.

This is a very interesting situation!

It's finally that time which our family has anxiously waited for a whole entire year. It's time to pull out our favorite of all favorites Christmas movie...none other than "It's a Wonderful Life." (if you were wondering where our blog's name came from now you know) I think we'll do the honors on Thanksgiving Night!!

The title of this post...is Luke's absolute favorite part. Last year we all died laughing watching him die laughing during it!! Adam's oft quoted, "Merry Christmas you drafty old Building and Loan!!" is done in a very convincing Jimmie Stewart voice. And as I'm writing I'm remembering all the other great parts. Luke and Bridget and even Will loved these and quoted them all during the holidays last year.

"I want a BIG one!"

"I wish I had a million dollars....hot dog."

"Mr. Potter stole the money."

"Zuzu's petals!"

Now I can't wait.

I love traditions.

I will treasure the doing more

Christmas is coming and my mind feels like a pinball machine filled with hundreds of balls bouncing this way and that in the form of "TO DO's" "TO BUY's" and "TO MAKE's." HELP!! Well, I just read this quote on a cousins blog (thanks Alissa) and must say how timely it was.

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11)

Now it's time to: 1. deposit half those ideas and worries in the trash
2. write the other half down on my list
3. quickly and simply take care of the necessities
4. all while I enjoy, treasure, read to, cherish, love, sing to, talk to, snuggle, laugh with, listen to, sit with, teach, hug, and play with
our children.

I love a List

1. Scout shop for awards: refer to scout list
2. Distribution center: Bridget's scriptures, primary songbook, scripture marking pencil, embossing
3. Some cute shop: Scripture bag
4. Grocery store: Treats for Bridget's school class (nothing homemade...what is this world coming to?!) Snacks for Bridget's friday afternoon Matinee Movie Party at our house on our non-working tv/dvd player....note to self: KSL classifieds has lot's of tv's to check out between now and then
5. Walmart: Kit Kittredge, an American Girl (movie of choice for the movie party),
Second choice: Tinkerbell Movie, a LONG skipping rope for Bridget's ever increasing skipping skills, pullups, everything from the grocery store point can be bought here also, paper bags for the popcorn, scrapbook paper and ribbon for pencil holder craft--a KIT KITTREDGE special, paper for making homemade fans---another craft from the KIT story

Remember when?

(Autumn & her two boys, Jen, Linsey & Ryder, Jonah & I)

I got to see some of my OLDEST friends last week! I have known Lins since we were tiny and Jen for almost that long. Autumn I met when we were all at Ricks College together...fun times.

When we were in high school our friends thought Linsey and I were crazy when we got together because we had so much to reminisce about. So it's only fitting that I do a little walking down memory lane after seeing her.
A few favorite memories:
Linsey and I produced a movie together entitled "The Perfect Murder!" All I can say is --you missed out not seeing it!!
We were all Care Bears and Smurfs together in our dance recital...oh YES!!
Jen and I worked at the friendly neighborhood grocery store IGA together
Jen and I laughed about the time when I tried to explain to her that it is O.K. if your pants are a tad bit loose at the bottom (she loved the tight ankled jeans) and decided that we could never go back to those tapered pants...who cares how in style they are!
Linsey and I and all of our sisters used to have dance competitions weekly where we would perform and get judged on our performances by each other...stobe light, costumes and makeup...the whole she-bang!
Jen was with me when I got my first speeding ticket...ew...I hate that memory!
One summer we spent so many fun days at Waterton National Park with all our friends hiking, biking, bonfires, canoeing, swimming...such a fun summer!

Lins just moved to Australia so it will probably be another four years till we are together again. The good news: With old friends you can always pick up where you left off and have a ball together. Can't wait!

To Narnia

A perfect HALLOWEEN sunrise!
















Time for Lucy and The Ghoul to go to school.

Our own Caspian, Lucy, King Peter;The Magnificent (don't forget), and Aslan!

Luke asked Bridget if she was going to ride on Aslan's back; maybe Aslan could ride on her!

Who wants to snuggle me?

Here I am!!

This is cozy!

Peter: "For Narnia, and for Aslan!!!"

Will: "Foe Nawnia, and foe Aswan!!"

Here comes Lucy to save the wounded with her special juice!

What a great day. I did not get a picture of Adam who was dressed as a cowboy...complete with a belt buckle. All he needed were some Wranglers and I'd have myself a real genuine cowboy. Though I'm happy with the one I got.

A little gore

Tonight I had a nasty run-in with my sewing machine. I was only a few inches from finishing Bridget's dress (seriously) and before I new it that machine chewed up my thumb nail and spit it out--leaving me with a smashed nail and half a needle.
Anywho, the doctor ended up removing the whole darn thing and now I have a huge, red, bandaged up, throbbing thumb. Will said to me this afternoon, "Mom, I think I'll ask Dad to get the pumpkins down for trick or treating cause you have a "bwoken fum!""

Happy Birthday Adam!

Today Adam turned 35!! The kids painted a great big "Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!" sign and hung it up in the boys bedroom window over the garage so that he'd see it when he came and went during the day. It just so happened to be one of those days when he didn't even so much as set a foot out of his office, leaving only the neighbor's to enjoy the sign. So just before the sun went down Bridget took the sign down and walked outside and over to his office window, taping it up so that Adam could see it inside. It was kind of like, "Hey Dad, it's your birthday and we are waiting to celebrate with you! Come on!!" I made his favorite pizza for dinner along with root beer floats and then carrot cake for dessert. We love you Adam. You are such a great Dad and Husband!

Diagolly

Today Will and I played a game that I'll call dots. I can't remember what it's called which is surprising because I've played it since I was little. (perfect quiet game for church). Anyway, it was in the Star Wars coloring book that we were doing mazes in. Will was showing me his "skills."
"Mom, you want to check out my skills at mazes?"
"Yes, Will. Show me!"
"Dat one was weally easy fo me. Dat's why I've got skills."
Anyway the page was covered in dots and each turn you get to connect any two dots with a line. As soon as you get a box you write your initial in it and it's yours. In this particular book the winner would advance from an apprentice to a real life jedi! So the incentive was high!!! We were playing along and he drew a diagonal line. I said, "Oh, just straight lines bud;" (although I guess we could have switched to making parallelograms rather than squares) Then he said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could do diagolly lines for da whole fing?" I love to hear that word out of his mouth. Next time I'll stop being so square and do the diagolly thing!!!

P.S. Will is now a jedi (67/173)

Crater Lake National Park

Monsters in our storage room!!

It was during the morning of Labor Day 2008. Our family was busy emptying out the storage room, preparing to paint it and go through everything. Suddenly out of the darkness comes a mean green monster with a growl like nothing you've ever heard. We didn't know what to do...until we discovered that he was a nice monster. And why shouldn't he be? Being friends with a shy ladybug should have been our first clue!

Jonah pulls faces

Cute.
























Thrilled.

(He looks a ton like my brother Andy in this one)






















SO Happy.
























Something smells.





















Silly.























Distraught.




















Smug.





















Undecided.

(Rice cereal or Oatmeal?)





















Huh?






















Matter of fact.

This all started when I found him sucking on the couch!!

"There you are...I was looking for something to eat!"

Talent

Yesterday the kids and I were on our way to school when Adam pulled onto our street. He pulled over and parked in front of our neighbors house so that he could walk with us. When we were on our way home Adam jumped in the car and without closing the door drove it down to our house. This was Will's question/comment that he said to me..."He's leaving the door open? You gotta lotta talent, kid!" (One of The King's lines to Lightning McQueen in the movie CARS)

School Bus Stop

Isn't this cute old thing the perfect back-to-school backdrop? I love these.