Stuff I Found On the Camera

He does this a lot.

Eden teaching Levi how to jump on the bed. Wonderful!
(Here's a peek at Eden's room. I need to take some better pictures of the walls, but you can at least get the idea of what it looks like.

Our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner this year with the Arizona Shirleys. My sister-in-law, Michelle, hosted and cooked a great turkey! I didn't get any pictures of the dinner- I guess we were too excited for the food to concentrate on snapping photos.

Afterward, we all hung out and talked. The kids had a blast playing together.

Matthew (4), Eden (2.5), Chloe (3), Rylee (2.5), and Jonah (4)

I think Eden found a new best buddy in Rylee. These two were having a great time together. They were even walking around holding hands. It was so cute.
We had lots of babies there too! (I don't know how I missed getting a picture of Levi. It's the story of my life...)

Charlotte (2), not really a baby anymore!
Henry (6 months)
Abby (4 months)
Eden was concerned about the crying baby and went over to give her a kiss.
And the star of the evening, Joseph (around 1 week old)

Happy Thanksgiving

"Now it's your turn to say 'Happy Thanksgiving' back."

"Happy Thanksgiving back."

Ha ha. Sorry, I am lame, but I had to do that for my sisters.

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I love to eat, just like everyone else, but to me it's not (only) about gluttony. Ever since I was a kid, our family has spent Thanksgiving in St. George, Utah, with my dad's side of the family. It started out as a big group, what with 8 kids in my dad's immediate family and each of them having 4-9 kids each. Now that many of us grandkids are older and have kids of our own, we have such an enormous group that we can barely contain everyone.

All I have ever known growing up is more of a Thanksgiving weekend. We spend the whole weekend together, the gigantic group of us, cooking, eating, playing games, talking, and acting weird at our annual Silly Song Night. We don't just celebrate Thanksgiving with one meal, but we make a huge celebration of it. We eat turkey and pies all weekend. We don't shop on Black Friday. We have a family night where we learn more about our grandparents and ancestors and get reports from the parents of missionaries out.

I have missed Thanksgiving 4 times in my lifetime, at least that I can recall. That's pretty good for being 29 years old. The first time was on my mission, then twice when Peter and I lived in the Bay Area, and now this year. It wasn't weird missing it on my mission, but the other times were different and of course I felt like something was missing.

I am sad that we can't make it this year, but glad that we have family near this time. It's going to be weird figuring out what to do the rest of the weekend without anything going on. I think we are planning on putting up our Christmas decorations and possibly painting the kitchen. It will be fun as long as we have things to do. Sitting around would just make me miss St. George more.

I know everyone has their own traditions in their families. I don't really have a conclusion to this post (I am definitely rambling here), but I guess it's just important to create traditions and then keep doing them.

I was talking to my mom this morning on the phone. She said that my little brother told her this morning that he has been thinking about going to Thanksgiving this whole week. I thought that was funny, because that's how I always felt growing up, and I still do. So I guess these traditions have an impact on us our whole lives.

Whatever you do, make sure you eat plenty of turkey and have a great time making memories with your families!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gratitude

I AM THANKFUL

I was born of goodly parents who taught me the gospel from my youth. I have siblings. My sisters and brother can make me laugh so hard that I pee my pants. I have had the opportunity to gain an education. I have shelter, food, and clothing. I have friends. I have a big enough family that I will probably never be alone on a day like this. I have talents. I can worship as I choose. I have a good relationship with my extended family. I am married to Peter for eternity. I am a mother. I am healthy and can receive medical attention if necessary. I married into a great family. I live in America. I love my husband and he loves me. My children are unique and loving. I have a wonderful heritage.

Spiritual Tag

1. What is your favorite Temple and why?
I have two favorites- The Las Vegas Temple and the San Diego Temple. They both are sentimental to me and hold lots of memories for me. I grew up doing baptisms at the Las Vegas Temple, and I got married in the San Diego Temple and spent a lot of time there with Peter before we got married.

2. My favorite calling that I've had in the church:
I don't think Full-time missionary counts, so think I would have to say teaching the Gospel Essentials Sunday School class. I love any calling where I am teaching, especially if the crowd is old enough to listen. I would love to teach a youth Sunday School class.

3. What has been your hardest calling in the church?

I haven't had any callings that were really time-consuming or anything, so if a calling was hard for me, it was because of my attitude. I think I'd say teaching CTR-4s while huge with child...

4. Favorite scripture story:
I love the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels, and the whole Abinadi/Alma conversion story.

5. Where would you like to serve a mission?
I would love to go back to Russia or surrounding post-Soviet countries, or serve in Central or South America.

6. When did you know the Gospel was true?
I think I always knew it was true. I don't remember ever having one big epiphany where I realized it was true, just a lot of little confirmations.

7. Who has been a spiritual giant in your life?
My parents. I have lots of great spiritual people in my life, but my parents have always been the most obvious and present examples. My parents always accept callings and I don't remember a time growing up where they weren't stretching themselves to magnify them. It was just a part of our family life that my parents served in the church.

It's Not My Fault

Okay, this is totally random, but I was just thinking about something. How can I explain this? Have you ever pretended to be interested in something someone else was into just because you had a crush on this person? And then maybe you convinced yourself that it actually was cool?

Well in college, I had a short-lived crush on a person who shall remain nameless. It was short-lived because I apparently misinterpreted a lot of meaningless flirting for actual interest. No biggie- I am obviously really glad it never worked out. For one, Peter is way better than him in so many ways I can't even begin to list them. And for two, he loved the Bare Naked Ladies.

Now don't get offended if you like them. At the time, I had never really heard their music. Then that annoying song One Week came out and everyone was singing it, without realizing that all the while they were sacrificing brain cells at the same time. This guy was a big fan and when that song came out and BNL became even more popular (well at least now they were regularly on the radio), he took it upon himself to instruct me in the ways of appreciating this mediocre and annoying stuff. He must have been using a Jedi mind trick, now that I think of it.

I actually went out and bought the dang CD and listened to it often. Even after I realized that we were no more than friends. And I listened to these guys for a few years more, convincing myself that they were witty and musically talented. I was in denial that they really stunk when other people found out I occasionally listened to them. Don't worry- I was never a fan. But I still tortured my ears with that stuff.

Anyway, I just was looking at all my CDs a while ago, and realized that I still had 3 of their albums: the one I bought, and two a friend burned for me. I usually have a hard time throwing things away, especially music. You never know when you're going to need "Ice, Ice Baby," right? Well I think I'll die happy if I never hear "One Week" again. So that CD is going in the trash...

So back to my question above: Have any of you ever had a similar experience?

R.G.I.T.M.B.

Okay, you might think I'm obsessed with the Disney princesses, but I am really not. I just always wonder why the Disney company chose to portray Aurora in the pink dress instead of the blue one. She wears the blue version more in the movie, and besides, I like it better.

I used to hate it when my mom sang around the house as a kid and would always tell her to stop. Now my kids do that to me.

I still have my Halloween decorations up.

I wish I could hold a tiger cub someday.

I am a complete sucker for "free gifts." Whenever Clinique is giving away a few small tubes of eye cream or lipstick (even if I know it's not my color and I won't wear it), I always stock up on what I usually buy there so that my total will be enough to get my free gift. This is also why I am subscribed to about 4 magazines that I barely read. I am pathetic! Oh yeah, and don't use this against me to try to sell me something! Ha ha.

I feel guilty about posting so rarely on my other blog. I'm going to post again soon-not out of guilt- I am actually creating something!

A Really Bad Day

Today was horrible. Other than Jonah getting his birthday present from his Grandma and Grandpa Willard in the mail today, this day just overall sucked. I tried to work out this morning (I usually do it at night) and that was a bad idea. The kids were in my way and were being mean to each other. I had to quit early and didn't get to stretch, so my legs were sore for a while.

Later on, I decided it was time (too late actually) to put some Christmas music on my ipod, so I plugged it into the computer. A box popped up telling me that it couldn't access my ipod because of some problem with the folder- whatever that means. So I decide, okay, I'll unplug and try again. So I eject my ipod and lo, and behold, my ipod has been restored, as in ERASED CLEAN. All of my songs gone. Not only had I spent hours putting songs on that thing, but also dollars to purchase songs. The majority of my songs aren't even in my iTunes library because we just installed iTunes on our home computer a few months ago. So that really sucked.

Then I got online to check my email and stuff. I see a video with live footage from the protests for Prop 8 at the L.A. Temple. That was horrible. A total downer, and I start to feel not only really depressed, but scared for the future and for my kids. Ask anyone who knows me well. That is not a good combo for me. I am a huge worrier-slash-emotional basket case about the world my kids will have to grow up in. So I cried a little while about that.

I made the kids lunch, which they barely ate, then I proceeded to pick up toys for the umpteenth time today. I try to get the kids to nap, to no avail. This is weird- the big kids almost always nap, and Levi naps twice. But he didn't nap once today, although I tried three times.

I decide to tackle the laundry and spend a good couple of hours folding, putting away, and changing load after load of laundry. I decide to wipe down my disgusting bathroom counter as well as take out all of the overflowing upstairs trashes. Meanwhile, I let the kids watch a movie downstairs that they picked out so they will not mess up my piles of folded laundry. The kids are usually great while watching movies- they don't just sit there, but they usually play without causing too much trouble. When I am finally done putting away the clothes, I go downstairs to find finely ground graham cracker crumbs and wonton pieces (from yesterday's lunch) all over the tile, carpet, and couches. I had left an avocado on the counter to ripen. It was smashed all over the entire downstairs: places in the carpet, on the walls, and yes, all over Eden. I found the pit in one of Levi's shoes. (That was probably the only time I smiled all day.)

At that point, I had had it! I yelled at the kids and put them both in time-outs. When they were out of time-out, they wouldn't help me clean up anything. They were both acting so defiant and just mean to me and each other. I feel bad for yelling at them, but seriously, I was losing it. I finally sent them both to their rooms and locked their doors with the lights out while I started to clean up the mess. Thankfully, Peter got home soon after that.

I know I probably neglected the kids today in favor of getting some chores done, but the kids have been acting like this for the last few days: not sharing whatsoever, pushing, hitting, yelling at each other, taking toys... I just cant stand it. We have started to read scriptures as a family out of those picture versions the church puts out. So far, the kids' attention spans have been near non-existent. But I am trying. I realize that our family's ties are going to have to be strong because of some of the things they will be facing. I am going to have to teach them and talk with them about things that my parents wouldn't have even thought to bring up. I just hope I don't screw these kids up too badly. I don't think I'm a horrible mom, but I know I can be better at a lot of things.

Anyway, sorry for the pity party/whine rant. Hopefully I won't have any more days like today anytime soon!

Have You Ever?

This looked like fun.

Here's how it works: Bold all the things that you have done in your life.

1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm at sea 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Run a Marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run 32. Been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught yourself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing 40. Seen Michelangelo’s David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had your portrait painted 48. Gone deep sea fishing- 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain 53. Played in the mud 54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie- 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving 66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten Caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone 78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had your picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone’s life 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. Been stung by a bee

Looks like I've got some traveling to do!

Jonah is 4!

Happy Birthday to Jonah! Our big boy is getting bigger. Jonah is such a great son and brother. He loves learning, doing puzzles, reading books, and singing and dancing. This week he will be student of the week in preschool. He is very good at initiating chasing and other games with his brother and sister. He loves to say prayers and wants to say it at every meal. He is very good with the alphabet and counting. We are just so lucky to have him in our family! We love you, Jonah!

We had some cupcakes and opened presents with just our family this year. Maybe he'll get a party next year. He didn't even know what he was missing!
The kids love singing "Happy Birthday," so we sang it three times and Jonah got to blow out candles all three times too.

Here are some videos too:

Jonah is 4! (cont.)

Jonah got to open a few presents from Mommy and Daddy. He got a Curious George stuffed animal, some Hot Wheels cars, clothes, two Look and Find books, and a guitar. He also has some birthday money that he can spend at the store from his grandparents and great-grandparents.

Jonah loves his new George.

Sorry for all of the videos, but I had to post them for my parents to see!

I thought it was so funny that Jonah thought it was "a little violin!" He has been obsessed with violins lately and can even pick them out of songs. He calls Viva La Vida the violin song!

A Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday we went to the Phoenix Zoo because Peter had the day off and it was somewhere to go! It's no San Diego Zoo, but the kids really enjoyed it and played hard. they all fell asleep on the way home, allowing Peter and I to stop by our favorite Italian Deli in Tempe. Peter used to work right near the zoo, but now we don't make it out to Tempe very often.

Anyway, here we are getting ready to go in. You can see that Eden is having a tantrum, but what else is new?
The kids loved the carousel, especially Eden. She was yelling "Yee-haw" and "Woo-hoo" the whole time, even before it started. Jonah rode on an alligator and a shark, and Eden rode on a leopard and a dolphin. We really should get one of these for the backyard...
We got to see lots of animals close up- the giraffes are situated right in the middle of the zoo and we got a great view of them.
The zebras were also right by the wall. The kids were so excited seeing animals in real life.

Here we are in the monkey exhibit. That's Eden yelling the whole time.

We also went to the little petting zoo they have and the kids got to climb on tractors and pet and brush the goats. They really had a good time.

Eden's way of riding on a tractor:

Well, we had a good day, but were ready to go home afterward!

I Love These Guys...

Okay, I am so glad these guys are back! I am starting to agree with my sister, Lexie, that Amare Stoudemire is the most underrated player in the NBA. This guys is seriously amazing. I just watched him totally work the Pacers over and hit all of his 15 free throws! I still love Steve Nash, Raja, and Barbosa, but I'm still not totally on board with Shaq and I probably never will be. Oh well. I'm also missing D'Antoni (the traitor), but we seem to be doing fine without him so far. I'm interested to see how they'll do against the Lakers and later the Spurs.

So Welcome Back, Boys!

Go Suns!

Some New Videos

Here is what we do almost every night:

And here is Levi playing the drum (sorry for the horrible lighting; I thought he'd move if I didn't just take the video right then.)

Peter's High School Tag

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes, a couple times, but always ended up enemies by the end of a two week relationship.
2. What kind of car did you drive? First an ugly 1982-ish copper-colored Toyota Tercel, then an even uglier 2nd generation 1980 or so Honda civic. My Dad bought it from my Aunt for $200 and later sold it to me for $400 dollars. Pretty sly.
3. Were you a party animal? It was tough to be a party animal with Seminary class starting at 5:30 a.m. every morning.
4. Were you considered a flirt? No, I was too busy scratching off my pimples, or eating boogers.
5. Were you in band, orchestra or choir? No way, only the nerds were in band, at least at my school. I knew a dude that played the flute or cello, he had it rough... Connie assures me band was 'cool' at her school.
6. What was your most embarrassing moment in high school? Probably getting crapped on by a seagull, or waking up after Geometry class with drool everywhere, or having bugs fly in and get caught in my fro.
7. Were you a nerd? Nerdy looking, yeah, but not a nerd academically. I was more of a loser when it came to actually learning anything.
8. Were you on varsity teams? No.
9. Did you ever get suspended/expelled? No, but I did have a major problem with authority back then. I always thought Big Brother was out to get me, glad I've overcome all those issues. :)
10. Can you still sing the fight song? Probably not, that wasn't required to graduate.
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr. Papciak was interesting, he was some former hippy who'd lived as a Hobo for a while or something, and my Civics teacher was great, can't remember his name, but it was his last year before retirement and he never really showed up for class, so neither did the students.
12. What was your school's full name? El Camino High
13. School mascot? A big cat, wild cat, mtn. lion or something.
14. Did you go to the Homecoming dance and with who? No, homecoming was nothing but trouble at my school.
15. If you could go back again, would you? No way, I would just get my GED and go straight to college. I wasted so much time at El Camino just goofing off.
16. What do you remember most about graduation? The feeling that four pointless years were finally over.
17. Where did you go senior skip day? Wasn't that every day during senior year? The Wedge, Newport Beach.
18. Were you in a club? No, but I had my eye on the Ninja/Karate club.
19. Have you gained some weight since then? Yes, and I'm gonna need a 'bro' pretty soon to support my former pecks.
20. Who was your prom date? I missed my prom, but I went to Carlsbad's prom as a Jr. That school was more respectable and funded than ours.
21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? No, I missed it.
22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Study, work hard, do your homework, go to class. Do not drop out of Math, you'll just be stuck taking those crappy classes in college.

Halloween 2008

I am going to wrap this all into one post.

On Thursday, Jonah had a Fall Festival at school. I'm not sure what it all entailed, but his teacher said he had fun. He totally got hooked up with goodies. He came home wearing this candy necklace. He also got a bag of mixed treats with Cheerios, Goldfish, candy corn, popcorn, and M&Ms in it. Plus he got a trick-or-treat bag with some candy in it and a little treat bag from the bus ladies.
Thursday night we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat. I guess it pays to have 800+ members in your ward, because our Trunk-or-Treat was rockin'! We had a cotton candy machine along with yummy chili, potato soup and cornbread. There were tons of trunks decked out and lots of fun costumes. I am sad to say that there were very few other adults who dressed up, but maybe we got some people into the spirit of it for next year! I went in my Cruella Deville costume, and Peter recycled his pirate costume from a few years ago. Here we are Trunk-or-Treating.

Here's how my costume turned out. We went to a costume party on the 24th and I even won the costume contest! Sorry, Peter's not the greatest photographer, plus I was tired and ready to get out of that thing!

We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Friday night. The kids were pretty good, but got tired soon, so we didn't get to go around our whole neighborhood. Here are the kids getting ready to go. They would not look at the camera for the life of me!
The people in our neighborhood must have been giving out handfuls, because we didn't even go to that many houses, but the kids were dragging their buckets on the way home. This plus what they got at the Trunk-or-Treat will last them the whole year!