A Tale of Frustration & Fun

For Christmas I bought Spencer tickets to a Portland Winterhawks game. I thought it would be fun and exciting and I was really excited to see them play. So the game was last Tuesday, December 29th, at 7:00 p.m. in the Rose Garden. Looking forward to the game wasn't the only excitement of the day however. Around late afternoon, Austin came and told me it was snowing outside, which I thought was pretty darn cool. I was very surprised to see how quickly it had accumulated on the ground though. The boys were so excited so we bundled up and headed out to build a snowman. They played so hard. The boys chased each other all around the yard with snowballs, which eventually turned into them wrestling on the ground. It was great!

A while later Spencer and I headed into town to the game and noticed that I-5 was completely stopped. Luckily, we were able to take side streets to get to the Rose Garden on time. We walked into the arena and immediately noticed how empty the place was. We sat there for a good half hour waiting for the game to start, wondering what was going on. An announcement was finally broadcast that we were waiting for the refs to arrive. 15 minutes later (45 minutes from the original start time) there is another announcement: "We have a new start time. The game will begin at 8:45 p.m. with warm ups beginning at 8:15 p.m." What!?? Almost 2 hours late! Dollar signs start to flash before my eyes as I think about the 2 hours we just wasted and the money my babysitter is pocketing. But what do you do?

Once the game finally started it was really fun. We had awesome seats. We were 3 rows behind the players at center ice and had no obstruction in our view at all. During the second quarter my cell phone rings and when I answered it the voice on the phone said, look up towards the camera, just a little to the left. Ironically, Brandon & Eilleen were there too. We all waved to each other and laughed. We decided to head for home at half time since it was already 10:15 p.m. and we needed to get our babysitter home. Leaving early was bitter sweet. I didn't want to go early but, at the same time, I did have a lot of fun! I will definitely have to buy more Winterhawk tickets in the future.

Christmas Time

Seriously, who doesn't love Christmas time?? It's by far the best Holiday of the year! I love Christmas because it's a great time to reflect and think about what I can do for others. What I can do to bring joy to their lives. I feel grateful for opportunities throughout the year when I can serve others and do nice, thoughtful things for them, but I do need to find ways to be even better all year through! One of my favorite Christmas songs is by Shedaisy and I love the line, "the secret of Christmas is not about the things we do at Christmas time, but the Christmas things we do all year through". I'm pretty sure that you can all guess at least one item that will be on my new years resolution list ;)

Well, I am not completely sure what it was about this years holiday, but I enjoyed every single minute of it. It was stress free, relaxing, magical as a parent seeing the kids anticipate Santa, and 100% fun!!

Christmas Eve has always been the day I look forward to the most. I love the traditions we have established with family and friends. We always start the day off bowling with friends. I believe this is our 6th year of doing so. After bowling we head over to Burgerville for lunch and wish Josie a Happy Birthday. The rest of the afternoon consisted of preparing homemade clam chowder, wrapping presents and making last minute runs to the store for various things.
Christmas Eve is always held at Spencer's parents house. Our dinner is homemade oyster stew & clam chowder, shrimp & cocktail sauce, bologna & cheese sandwiches and Marie's homemade cheese ball & stuffed mushrooms. This year I brought sourdough bread bowls for my clam chowder. It was so good. For dessert we all enjoy a glass of Reindeer Milk (Egg Nog, Vanilla Ice Cream & Apple Juice). Once things settled down we read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible and then played chimes. On our way home from his parent's house we have another tradition of stopping at Kelly & Aundrea's to play chimes with their family, as well as Jeremy & Rochelle's, and have yet another glass of Reindeer Milk with them. It's a fun tradition we started last year. Once we got home the kids opened up their Christmas Eve gift from Mom & Dad, a new pair of pajamas and slippers. The off to bed they went. Sadly, we got home so late Spencer forgot to do our traditional reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". I was sad about this.
After much wrapping and assembly, Santa & Mrs. Claus was finally able to go to bed. This was the first year in fact that Austin got up himself and peeked downstairs, instead of us having to wake him up. He must have been excited!

Well luckily for the boys, Santa came. Cameron was especially grateful for this because several days beforehand he had announced to us all that he had been put on Santa's Naughty List. Too much Dora the Explorer! The boys got an air hockey table & Wii games. Austin & Cameron were very excited to get their duck hunting game they asked for and Andrew got a new tri-cycle. Mom got new clothes and shoes (thank you Spencer!), and Dad got cologne, a DVD of a movie he was an extra in and tickets to tomorrow nights Winterhawk game. Nobody lacked anything!

After we opened gifts, I hosted a breakfast at my house for our family and made a fabulous recipe from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook. I am loving that cookbook! I also volunteered to work at the store from 10:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. and had a really fun time doing that. I expected the store to be dead, but I was wrong. Since no other store in the area was open we were hopping. It was fun though, my manager brought in homemade lasagna and garlic bread and we had a ton of fun.

Dinner was at Marie's house at 4:00 p.m. and as always she made a fabulous meal! Her coconut cake was to die for. I thoroughly enjoyed all the time we could spend together as a family! It was wonderful having Ryan home and able to join us. I can't say it enough ... Christmas is my favorite time of year!

Pictures with Santa

I was grateful Andrew was willing to sit on Santa's lap long enough for me to snap a picture. As long as Andrew didn't have to make eye contact with Santa we were doing good!

Cameron was pretty excited to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Austin totally cracked me up when I heard him tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. I thought I knew by heart what he wanted, but somewhere along the line he decided he wanted to throw in a hula hoop. A hula hoop!

These pictures were taken at our Ward Christmas party and what a wonderful party it was, despite my bad mood that evening.

Chicken Down!!

Last week Austin found a bargain at Fred Meyers. He bought a huge pack of Army men for only .50 cents. He used his own money and was pretty excited about his find. Needless to say I am now finding little Army dudes all around my house, and in totally random places! I found 5 of them standing armed and gunned on my thermostat, about 10 of them lined along his bed rail, and a couple of them standing guard in the bathtub. I just laugh every time I find new ones.

So a couple of days ago I ran into a situation that really made me laugh. I found this gruesome scene on my dining table. The poor rubber chicken didn't stand a chance. It cracked me up and the only thing I could think to do was grab my camera. I love his imagination!

A Birthday Surprise

This December Spencer turned 33 and I wanted to do something special this year for his birthday. The idea hit me at Thanksgiving to surprise him with a night snowboarding trip. I rounded up his cousins, and fellow snowboarders, to go along with us. I am very happy to say that my surprise went over well and he was indeed surprised!

Here is how it all went down; about a week before Spencer's birthday I told him that I had made an appointment for us in Portland and that I needed him to get off work and be home by 1:00 p.m. He assumed that I had scheduled a massage app't, just like I hoped he would. On the morning of his birthday I rounded up our snowboards, gear and winter clothes and dropped them off at his cousin's house. Once he got home from work and we were on the road towards Portland I told him that I needed to stop off at his Aunt's house to pick something up. He didn't think a thing about it and when we got there I told him to come inside real quick with me. When we entered the house he saw several snowboards sitting on the floor with a bunch of gear and Spencer asked Garth if he was going boarding. I turned to Spencer and said, "Yeah, so are you!" He looked dumbfounded. I could see the wheels turning in his head and said, I have everything you'll need right here and pointed to his bag. He still had a puzzled look on his face so I started to pull everything out to prove to him I had thought it all through. After a few seconds he smiled and said, "Wow ... Cool!"

So we all geared up and headed to Mt. Hood for an evening of fun at Meadows. The weather was great, hardly anyone was there and it felt so good to snowboard again. I think he had a pretty great birthday! A couple of days later we had a family party with cake and ice cream at our house. Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

New Christmas Tradition

I love the Christmas season and I have been anxiously awaiting it long before Thanksgiving. I love everything about it. This year for Christmas we started a new family tradition and decided to draw names between us all. I got Austin; Austin got Cameron; Cameron got Me; Andrew got Spencer; and Spencer got Andrew. Austin was in charge of preparing the names so we could draw from a hat and he took it to a whole new level. He didn't just write the names on a small sheet of paper, he went to the effort of taping money (coins) to them as a special added touch. He was pretty excited to be in charge of such an important task. Spencer and I just laughed.

So this last Saturday we made a special trip to Fred Meyer and each of us got $10 to spend on our person. Austin was able to maximize his money and came away with 4 presents for Cameron, again which he is pretty proud of. The boys had so much fun hunting for the perfect gift, and I can't wait to see if we can make it till Christmas with out them spilling the beans on what they got. We shall see...

Late Night Excitement

There are lots of good things about the winter season that I like such as; the holidays, endless cups of hot chocolate, and curling up in a blanket on the couch with a good book. Those three things make me very happy! Unfortunately though, there is a negative side to the season in my eyes that I could for-go. I am not a fan of the sun going down so early and the feeling of dry, chapped skin, no matter how much lotion I apply. But more than anything, I am not a fan of the runny noses & cold germs that make their way into our household this time of year.

Just a little over a week ago Andrew fell victim to the common cold. His cold really only manifested itself by way of a runny nose and cough, nothing too unpleasant. So it was a surprise to me that on the night of the Civil War game I came home from work to hear that Andrew needed to be monitored. Spencer explained to me that Andrew was laboring to breathe. Unfortunately, we have had some experience with croup in our household so I was fully aware of what "laboring to breathe" meant. I checked on Andrew immediately, who was sleeping, and after just a short glance at him I knew I had to take him to the hospital. I arrived in the emergency room around 11:30 p.m. and was out the door just a little after 2:00 p.m. After giving Andrew some breathing treatments and taking x-rays of his chest the doctor determined that he had Bronchiolitis, a viral infection in the lungs. I guess it's like a form of Bronchitis, only in kids. No antibiotics were needed, but they did send me home with an inhaler. I was grateful for the quick attention we were given in the emergency room. Note to self - if you want fast service in a medical facility, tell them you are laboring to breath. Works like a charm.

So it's now 2:30 in the morning as I pull out of the hospital parking garage when my low fuel light comes on. Not good! So I decide that my best bet of finding an open gas station at this hour would be on 185th. As I pass all the exits along the way I notice that not a single gas station is open. Almost in a panic I call Spencer and ask him if I have enough gas to make it home. He said No, and was against the idea of me even trying. Visions of Andrew and I sleeping in my car flash into my mind. Fortunately, we did not have to sleep in the car! A Shell station was open not too far off the highway and I profusely thanked the gal who filled my tank for being open so late. My luck even got better because next door to the gas station was a McDonald's so I treated myself to a strawberry milkshake. Actually I really needed it to sip on so I could stay awake for the remainder of the trip home. It was a long night but I finally made it home safe and sound feeling grateful to have a healthy little boy sleeping comfortably in his bed!

Our Thanksgiving Holiday

First of all I would just like to say how grateful I am towards my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunities I have been given in life. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for the constant companionship I have with Him, even though I don't always feel like I deserve it. I am grateful for the family I belong to, and for the opportunity He has given me to create a family of my own. Each year as I am getting older I am realizing now more than ever the importance of Family. The traditions we are creating, the memories we are making, and the bonds we are strengthening. Thank you Father for continuing to teach me such valuable lessons in life!

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun and so relaxing. The day's events started around 8:00 a.m. when Spencer played in the Turkey Bowl with our ward at the local park. The turnout for players was great, and for those who weren't playing, we got to mingle by a fire with some delicious hot chocolate and muffins. The men were kind enough to let the little kids play with them, which they enjoyed. After we got home and everyone washed off the mud they were coated in, we had just enough time to prepare our contribution to our Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving dinner was held at Brandon & Eileen's house at 2:00 p.m. and we brought; Green Bean Casserole, Jellied Cranberries and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Our dinner was delicious and it was so much fun visiting with our relatives, all 25 of them. Every year we wonder if our family is getting too large to all get together and all of us kids protest and say No, it isn't. We love it!

After dinner we headed over to Spencer's parents house to peruse the ads for Black Friday. Spencer and I enjoy taking advantage of the sales on black Friday and feel that it's worth the hassle for the deals you get. We were fortunate to get Megan to spend the night so that we could get up early (3:30 a.m.) and travel into the city. We went with some friends of ours and after we hit the stores we wanted to and got the deals we seeked we stopped at IHOP for some breakfast and still made it home by 9:30 a.m. Guess that's what getting an early start will do for ya. The rest of the weekend was spent with family and decorating for Christmas.

All I want for Christmas...

...is my two front teeth! Well, and maybe my bottom one too!

Right now Austin has 3 missing teeth. It was pretty funny the other night though, the Tooth Fairy just about botched it. As I was waking Austin up in the morning I realized that I had completely forgot to take his tooth and leave him a dollar. I quickly high-tailed it back to my room, grabbed a dollar and tried to sneak it under Austin's pillow. I got my hand underneath but just as I was pulling it out Austin jumped up and flipped his pillow over. It seriously happened so quickly and I just knew he had caught me red handed! When he saw that his tooth was still there, as was the dollar bill, I said, "Wow, I guess the Tooth Fairy didn't need your tooth this time". He didn't ask me any questions and I was certainly glad that he didn't. I don't know how much longer he will continue to believe in this stuff, but I hope it lasts for a while longer.