You wanna Christmas card?

I'll give you a Christmas card!
(have you seen that episode of Seinfeld? It's hilarious.)

Well... we are alive. The blog has not been alive but we're here. Things get crazy around Christmas. How do you guys find time to blog amidst it all?

One thing I did not have time to do this year was Christmas cards. I'm sorry. I love you all and would love to send you a beautiful photo card for your refrigerator's pleasure but I just didn't have time.

So, this will be my digital Christmas card. I sprung for the $4.99 picture cd JUST for you guys.
Merry Christmas!!





















(p.s. for the first time I tried to make the blog cute to make up for my lack of posts. I'm trying.. AND once I can get my card reader to function, I will post pics from the last few weeks, especially Kenz's 4th birthday and my trip to Virginia! stay tuned...)

Friends?

Isn't it great when your kids like each other?
And they do cute things all by themselves?
Really, I can't think of anything more rewarding.

Like turning the laundry basket into a boat (Jarom's still trying to figure out how people say cheese and smile at the same time)...

Or this was a cute moment... just pulling together some pillows and blankets and reading to each other..

Or checking on them outside to find Makenzie spinning him on the swing and both of them laughing hysterically (and I know, you can really see the Samoan in Jarom when he's in the sun).

But believe you me...
Those pictures were taken for a reason.
They were special.
VERY special.

Lately Kenz & Jarom have been having some relationship issues.
Jarom just wants to be with Makenzie every waking minute, say what she says and do what she does.
Makenzie wants him to go away.
And she may lose her cool with him from time to time.
I don't know where she gets that from.

So I pulled out my handy dandy "What to Expect the Toddler Years" (don't judge me, I need all the help I can get, ok?) and it was like reading my own journal. Apparently this is a normal scenario, whew! The book basically says to help out your older child (instead of scolding her for being mean to brother, like I had been doing). It really reiterated how it's not fair for a kid to have to deal with a 2-year-old all day (duh! that's why I love parenting books), and to help give your older kid some personal space, protect her belongings from the younger one, and tell her it's okay to get frustrated or even angry as long as you don't get physical.

Well... I'll be honest, it has helped a lot.
And now I can just take it in stride when Makenzie gets bothered and says:
-Jarom, stop bothering me!
-Jarom, you're making me OBNOXIOUS!

I really think Makenzie has responded well to me just understanding when she gets frustrated, and paying extra attention to her. She has been really sweet with Jarom the last few days, except for his few "obnoxious" moments. Hooray for parenting books, and hooray for cute moments!

How can this not entertain you?

A poll:

Your favorite cheesy New Moon picture.

A.

B.

or C.

This is a tough call for me. The first one makes me laugh. The second one makes me roll my eyes. And the third one makes me laugh like a nerd and say, "heh heh get it?? moons! new moons!"

Let's be honest though... who's going to see it?
Saturday night for me!

First project

Makenzie's very first school project:
Make a star spotlight poster about yourself to share with the class.
They do one kid a week, and this week is Makenzie's turn.

She wanted it "princessy."
It doesn't feel like long ago that I said, "My daughter will NEVER have all that princess junk."

Yeah.
That was then.
What can you do?
Girls like pink stuff.
And they like princesses.
And to be honest, now that I have a daughter, I think she really is a little princess.
Yep, I have changed.

So here she is, with her awesomely pink poster, name in glitter, and glittery princess-themed foam stickers all over.
Wow.
Our little girl is growing up!

Life

I wake up today with a determination to make the most out of my here and now.
Not in the turbo clean sense, not in the million errands sense.
But in the my-kids-are-only-little-once, I-should-treasure-these-moments sense.
No matter what, I will have a great day with the kids.
I am feeling very optimistic this morning.

And as Life likes to do, it sees my new found resolve and raises me two cranky toddlers.

Makenzie is three.
She wakes up silly and hyper, but also angry and aggressive.
A strange combination, I know.
She has it out for Jarom, and is talking back to me in that silly way that drives me bonkers.

Jarom is two.
He is physically incapable of leaving things in their place.
Then, he starts to color.
Yes! He's entertained. I can clean up his previous 5 messes.
He moves his paper to the floor and introduces his purple marker to our carpet.
Then he needs a tissue.
He unrolls half of the roll and brings it to me saying, "Nose."

Toys are scattered everywhere, children are crying and fighting, marker is on the carpet and I'm getting frazzled. It's 10 a.m.

So what do I do when things are getting crazy? I get out. There must be some errand I need to run. Gotta get these kids out of here!

I take a shower.
When I get out, Jarom has so kindly spread the clothes I folded this morning all over my bedroom.
And this is the moment Life got the better of me.
I lost.
I yelled at him.

Can I do this?
Can I stare purple marker on the carpet in the face and not lose my temper?
Yes, I can.
I can do this.

And wouldn't you know that just when I was about to give up on my goal, things changed?
And guess what, Life?
The rest of the day ran smoothly.
I went to the grocery store with both of them without incident and I got both of them down for a nap, without the aid of the car, AT THE SAME TIME.
That's 2 to 1.
I win.

Coolest weekend ever, second half

Okay, so on we go. Halloween morning we had some delicious Samoan pancakes and got ready to head out to Temple Square.

Here's our chef with my bro-in-law Aaron.

Church office building.

Cute pic of Sarah in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

Touring the Conference Center.

On the 3rd level overlooking a water sculpture.

And this husband-wife duet. You could hear the piano and violin playing throughout the conference center. Beautiful.

This is what you saw looking up from the sculpture/fountain.

Waterfall coming off the roof.

Our tour guide, Brother Hogan, showing us this cool sculpture of the first vision. (And he also lives a couple houses down from Justin's parents)

I really liked this little sculpture of Joseph & Emma.

Up on the roof of the conference center. It's gorgeous with fountains and trees.

Checkin it out.

Enjoying the view.

Pretty temple.

The guys were so nice to take all the kids to Burger King and let Trina and I eat at the Lion House. Yum yum yum!!!

Next stop: Discovery Gateway children's museum. They had a big Halloween shindig.

The little guys loved the water of course.

And so do the big guys, I guess. Isn't he cute?? hahaha

Love those guys.

They had mask making. Lookin' good Trina!

Chillin' in the helicopter.

Uncle Justin is just a big kid.

And after a full day of fun, we had some soup and sandwiches and got all ready for trick-or-treating. Jarom had just woken up from his nap so pardon his emotional instability at the moment. He cheered up once people started throwing candy in his bag.

It was an action-filled day and we were pretty wasted by the end of it. But of course we still managed to stay up talking til the wee hours of the morning. It was so good to have Trina & Aaron's family with us for the weekend! Definitely a very memorable Halloween!

Pretty much the coolest Halloween weekend ever

My sister Trina and brother-in-law Aaron came to visit us for the Halloween weekend.
That means I got to see seven out of my 12 nieces and nephews.
Exciting, I know.

They got here Thursday afternoon. After dinner, we did caramel apples. Very sticky, yet very yummy.



Makenzie with my cute niece Sarah. Right before this picture, Sarah asked Makenzie if she wanted to be her best friend. Makenzie said okay. Sarah said, "But I probably won't be able to see you very often. We're on a trip." So cute.
My oldest niece Madison.
My second-oldest niece Kaitlyn and new baby niece Abigail. Kaitlyn waited so patiently to eat her apple so she could help out and hold Abby.

My cute nephew Christian. He's only 4 months older than Kenz.

And of course we had to have baths afterward. This is my adorable little nephew Anderson with Jarom, I love this picture. They're only 2 months apart, Andy's older.

Friday morning we headed over to Wheeler farm and fed the ducks.

Notice I'm actually in pictures because Trina took these. It's probably best I stay out of them.

The girls.

Work it, Jarom.

So cute.

This is my oldest nephew, Morgan. He is 13 now and he's 5'9" and wears a size 12 shoe! How did this happen?
And a little leaf fun.

Can't see a lot in this picture but it's the only one we have. Friday night the adults headed over to This is the Place's Haunted Village. It was AWESOME, totally different than last year. Justin liked last year's better but I really thought it was a toss up.

Okay, I told you this was the coolest Halloween weekend ever. We did so much I can't do it all in one post. Second half coming soon...