"All I want for Christmas is my two front stitches!"

Poor Sami! Her first official day of Christmas break and not even half way through the day she trips while playing out in the snow and smacks her mouth on the neighbors porch! So we braved the blizzard that was going on outside and went to the doctors so she could get two stitches right below her lip. She was so brave and so was I, this was the first time any of my kids have had to have stitches so it was a new thing for me too. Sami was proud of herself because she didn't cry while they were stitching her up.

Sami got glasses!

Sami knew exactly which glasses she wanted and I think she did a good job picking them out. They are black with turquoise  on the inside. She has been so excited to go get glasses so this was almost as good as Christmas...... almost!

Ethan: Demon or Angel?

So about a month ago I had an interesting conversation with Ethan, here is how it went:

me: Ethan you have been kind of naughty and ornery lately, it makes me sad. I miss my happy Ethan who is nice and loves everyone.

Ethan: (straight faced) Your Ethan is dead.

Okay,.... what do you say to that? I couldn't help but to hide a little laugh, because where does he come up with these things? Is he seriously possessed? ( He has started to act better in the past month, thank goodness!)

Then this past week he was acting silly and I asked him this...

me: Who are you?

Ethan: (proudly) I Am A Child Of God! And he has sent me here!

Sami told me that in primary they ask the kids this question and they all respond in this manner. So thank you the primary leaders for changing my Ethan from and demon to an angel! 

The Great Adventures of Pengy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of years ago Braden got a stuffed penguin that he named Pengy. Braden loves Pengy, he used to carry him around everywhere. Over the years Pengy has been know to get himself into a little trouble from time to time, like jumping into the bathtub with the kids. Well this past week Brad went on a business trip to Boston and Pengy jumped into his computer bag so he could go along too. Brad documented Pengy's adventures and emailed them to the kids, who in turn had a blast seeing all he did.

The Picture above is Pengy sitting in his airplane seat.

 

Pengy looking out the airplane window. My kids were a little jealous cause Pengy has been on an airplane and they haven't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pengy in his hotel bed and getting into the hot tub!

 

Pengy going to Brad's meetings with him. All of Brad's colleagues loved Pengy and helped take pictures of him.

 

 

 

 

 

  

Pengy talking on the phone.

This is one of the side effects of hanging out with Brad so much, you can't help but become a phone user!

 

 

 

 

This is Pengy hiding in a Christmas tree and riding Rudolph!

Apparently Pengy has a sweet tooth. He finished an ice cream sundae and then ate a bunch of mini candy bars!

 

The kids thought this one was pretty funny, it is Pengy trying to win a friend out of one of those toy machines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a long trip it was back to the airport so he could bring our dad back to us. This is him going through the security check, luckily he behaved himself and didn't try to smuggle anything!

 

 

 

 

 

He did take a little time out to get a massage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting to board the plane.

 

 

 

 

 

He was so happy when he found a friend to talk to at the airport.

 

 

 

We are glad both Pengy and Brad arrived home safely. We missed them both so much!

Chef Cluzey !

Brad has finally launched his recipe blog! It is called Chef Cluzey. You will all have to go and check it out.

Chef Cluzey

A Little Ute Love!

Here are some cookies that Brad and I made for our friends, Cameron and Holly. They love the Utes and we wanted to celebrate Utah's victory with them. I am sure they were super happy that Utah killed BYU!  Love ya guys!

Anyone? Anyone?

So we were violated this morning! Does anyone want to confess?

"Hangin' Tough" with "The Right Stuff"

So as many of you already know, on Saturday I went to the New Kids on the Block concert. I had talked myself out of being very excited about it because I kept thinking to myself that it would be kind of silly to watch grown men dance around on stage like teenagers, but let me tell you, as soon as they stepped foot on stage I was 14 all over again! It was so much fun!

So lets take a little walk down memory lane......

Here are my ticket stubs. The top is from last Sat., Nov.15,2008 and the bottom is from Sept. 1, 1990.

This me 18 years ago at my first New Kids concert. I am on the far left looking down, then it's my friends Cami, Shar, and Yvette, my mom is taking the picture and yes she went with us because we were too young to drive ourselves.

These were the New Kids I feel in love with all those many years ago. And by the way in case you were wondering, Donnie was my favorite. I loved the rebel in him, he was hot!!!!!

 

And now I am going to really put myself out there. I will probably be made fun of for this, but remember I was young and oh so in love. I used to write poems and NKOTB was the inspiration for a fair number of them, so I thought I would share with all of you my awesome talent.

                     Donnie

Donnie you are so very sweet,

your smile knocks me off my feet.

When I hear your name,

I scream and shout and go insane.

Your looks are so fine,

I want you to be mine.

My love for you is very strong,

I hope this lasts oh so long.

 

       New Kids on the Block

They are the New Kids on the Block

and they are here to rock!

Jordan's got the move

and Donnie's got the groove,

Joey's got the butt

and Danny's got the strut,

Jon is shy,

but he's a really sweet guy,

they are here to stay

and they're never going away!

 

Okay hold your applause! I know it is mind boggling that I could come up with such earth moving verses, but it is a rare talent!

So now we come to the present time.....

 

Here Cami and I are again, a little older and more mature. Of course when the lights went off and the music started playing all maturity went out the window!

 

 

I also went with my sister, Tana, and my cousins wife, Lorri. My mom  chose not to come with us this time since we could drive ourselves.

 

 

Yep, that's my Donnie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donnie is the one in the red hat holding up a shirt that a girl threw to him. It said "I love mormon girls".

 

 

It was fun to get away and act like a kid again! If they come back I will probably go again, they were quite entertaining. The big difference between then and now is I wasn't swooning over how hot they all were. I have my own New Kid now, he inspires my poems and he is better than all my old dreams. And he does have "The Right Stuff" and "I'll Be Loving Him Forever"!

Random Things

I love it when Brad cooks! I am so thankful that he has a passion for it. The other night he made homemade spaghetti sauce, he put it over noodles for the kids and we had ours over spaghetti squash, cantaloupe with honey and lime sauce, french bread with basil, garlic, butter and parmesan cheese, and broccoli with myzithra cheese. He has also been on  a creme brulee kick so I think he made a different batch every night this past week trying to perfect it, which he has...yummy! And last night he made homemade candy cane oreo ice cream, if he keeps this up I will need new pants for Christmas! He also wants to start a recipe blog and he was asking me what he should call it, I suggested "Hot Sexy Cook" , but he wasn't too sure about that, so if any of you have any suggestions let us know.

 

 

This is what happens when you don't keep an eye on Jacob and the pantry door is left open. He pulled everything out until he found some white chocolate chip and then he helped himself!

 

 

 

 

 

Ethan got his hair cut this past week and he asked to have his hair washed too, he takes after me , that is my favorite part of getting my hair cut. When I am rich I think I will hire someone just to wash my hair everyday!

 

This is one of my favorite pictures! How could you not love these guys?!!!!

Ward Fall Carnival

Brad and I are on the Activities Committee for our ward along with Shelley and Heber, so that means that pretty much it is Shelley and I that plan everything and Heber and Brad help with the set up. Our friends Trent and Jamie were just called to the committee also so we are looking forward to working and playing with them. On November 1st we put on a Fall Carnival for the ward and it turned out so good, tons of people came. Here are some of the things we had planned:

We a couple of the Young Women there to do face painting. Thanks Jo and Bell!

 

 

Gourd Bowling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bean Bag Toss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Petting Zoo

(Shelley and I giggled at ourselves for this one!)

 

 

We had another one of the Young Women there taking family pictures. Thanks Adria!

 

 

 

And we had a Hay Ride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had potato sack races but I didn't get pictures of that. I couldn't believe how much the kids enjoyed all the games, they just kept playing them over and over again.

We had tons of people sign up for our Chili and Salsa contest. Let me tell you that it was all delicious, our judges had a hard time picking the winners. In the end Brother Carter won for his salsa and Sister Schmidt won for her chili. We can't wait to do it again next year!

Halloween 2008

So here I am once again playing catch up, the story of my life!

October was full of fun times and good food. We went to a party that our friends, Holly and Cameron, put on.

 

 

It was fun to get together and just visit, eat food and carve pumpkins. I thought everyone's costumes were really cool too!

 

 

 

 

 

Brad and I dressed up as BYU fans. We don't really care about sports, but his family are die hard UTE fans so it was a joke.

 

 

 

My mom was awesome, she dressed up as Nanny Mcfee. She made the costume herself and did a great job!

 

Then a week later we had our own party with some of the people Brad used to work with. This is usually a huge party but we down scaled it a bit this year, but it was still fun.

Here are some of the treats we made for the party. Leave it to Brad to go all out.

 

Brad used jello molds to make all these body parts.

 

 

 

We had a pull string pinata for all the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

We also made haunted houses out of rice crispy treats, that is a tradition of ours.

 

We would like to thank those who came; Lyle & Jill and family, Alain & Wendy and family, Mike & Heather , and Shelley and kids.

 

 

This month we also went trick or treating at the Heritage Care Center where my dad lives. The kids look forward to this every year.

Although they don't look too excited in this picture! It is fun, they have a dinner, games, face painting and other activities for the kids to do and the residents there hand out the candy.

 

I am Braden's room mom this year so I got to plan his class party, it is always fun to go and play with them.

Then here is Halloween night. Sami was a vampire pirate, Braden a black ninja, Ethan a dog, Jacob was Elmo and their Aunt Tana was Dorthy from the Wizzard of Oz.

So that pretty much wraps up October, it was a lot of fun!