911

Brooke has become my personal secretary. The minute the phone rings she is beating everyone to the phone. She even loves to steal the cell phones and send a text to all who are willing to receive her text. The problem is.... she likes to answer telemarketer calls and she will hide anywhere so that she can continue being a secretary. I was busy yesterday talking on my cell phone with Cheri and working on the computer trying to get my scouting stuff done. I had only been out of the shower for twenty minutes so my hair was trying to dry when the door bell rang. Of course Brooke comes booking it down the hall to answer the door. When I turned the corner, I noticed lights flashing and a police officer was in my drive way. I said to Cheri, what the heck a cop is here. I opened the door and the officer asked if everything was okay. I told him yes. He said that a call had been placed to 911 and they had tried to call back but only got buttons being pushed. I told him it had to have been my little girl. He said, "oh is she in preschool and just learned about 911". I said "no, she is only 2". I couldn't believe it, how did she manage to push those numbers together. The officer was nice to her and told her not to play on the phone. I talked to Brooke after he left and told her that playing with the phone was naughty. She didn't cry but she hung her head and went straight to the bean bag. She was sulking. Before I knew it she was asleep. After she woke up, I asked her if she remembered what she did. She remembered and then said, "I HATE COPS." It made me chuckle because first of all the only time she has heard the word cop, was when I was talking to Cheri, telling her a cop was here. And second because she was the one who had been naughty. Hopefully that is the last time we have to deal with a cop. Unfortunately that is the 3rd time that 911 has been called from our house in Grantsville. So when it is a real emergency, they won't come because they will know our kids have been playing on the phone.

Something to Remember

On Friday, the kids had gone to school so Brooke and I decided to have some breakfast. Brooke requested Marshmallow Mateys. I decided to have some eggs like I had fixed the kids earlier. As I sat down with my steaming plate of eggs, Brooke had slurped her last bite of cereal and began climbing over the bar stools to get to me. She told me that she wanted a taste of my breakfast. Knowing Brooke as well as I do, this meant she wanted to sit on my lap and eat off of my fork and eat my breakfast. I told her this is my breakfast and she had just finished hers. She looked at me so serious and said, " mom, Jesus wants you to share." Now I wonder where she got that from? Maybe because I am constantly telling her to share her stuff and that Jesus wants her to share with others. Well I guess that came back to bite me on the behind! So I did what Jesus would want me to do and I shared. After She was done with the bite that I gave her, she said again, Mom, Jesus wants you to share. So I gave her another bite. This continued until my plate was empty. I can't say I got much to eat in fact maybe 2 bites, so I ended up making myself a new plate of eggs. The moral of this story is don't teach your kids something unless your willing to do it too! I love my little Brookeee. I'm glad she reminds me what Jesus wants me to do!

Look what I created!

This is my newest masterpiece! I don't have everything on it yet but this is a start. My Friend Celeste helped me build a book case to put all my photo albums in it. After we got that done, we discussed how cool it would be to have the making memories shelf that is about 70.00. We didn't like how little it was, so we decided we would build one to our liking. (for half the price) I measured the length of my wall that I wanted the shelf to go on and then I went and got the wood to build it. It took a few hours to build and then half the time to build hers. Celeste painted it during the Christmas Break. We hung it a couple of weeks ago. So what do you think of our ability to build things. I think it is soooooo cute and I come in just to see the shelf. It has made my office/Brooke's room so much nicer.

Sunday Treats

Every Sunday we seem to get a sweet tooth for a yummy treat. Mandy is always willing to mix up a batch of brownies. I don't know if she is so willing because she likes to cook or because she likes to lick the bowl clean. Today she had a little helper who wanted to lick the beaters.

The funny thing is she had it in her hair on her shirt and also on the counter. I even got a great picture of her trying to lick the counter off.

But thanks to Mandy, we always have a good Sunday treat. I know that I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks, but it has been a little crazy around here. I've been doing my calling, PTA stuff and trying to be a mom and running kids around. I've also been doing lots of running trying to prepare for the 5K. I can say I use to love to run but not so much any more. Because of such a crazy life, Mike and I decided Thursday night that we would go to a rock concert in Wendover on Friday. We survived the Fog and made it to the Eddie Money concert. It was fun to be with my husband and to enjoy something that he loves. I got more enjoyment out of watching the people drinking and acting like idiots and also seeing an old rock n roll star try to be sexy and dance on the stage. I told Mike that he didn't turn me on like Keith Urban can. It was a lot of fun to spend a night with my hubby and to get away from the rat race for a while.

Our trip to St. George

We went to St. George over the Christmas Break. My brother and Mikes brother both had sons getting baptized and my sister Misti was blessing her baby Julia so what better reason to head south. We left New Years day. We stayed in Cedar City the first night with Mike's brother Randy, and the next day we headed to St. George. That night, we had a mean game of volleyball at Pine View Jr. High. It was the old ladies (plus my brother Jeff who filled in for Misti when she left) against the young girls and Tayson and his friend. Of course you know who kicked some fanny.... That's right the old man and women. Even Jeff displayed his jump serve if you can call jumping an inch off the ground a jump serve. j/k There were many classic moments that will be forever burned in my brain. The best was Cheri taking it off the neck. I don't know how long it stayed red. But it made me fall to the ground laughing. The next day was the baptism. Mike went to Cedar and I stayed in St. George for my nephews baptism. After the baptism, we went back to my parents house and ate dinner. (even though they aren't there.) That is when the action began. Jeff became a bull and the young boys were all over that. The bull finally had to rest after Tanner though.But he was able to gain his strength again to take care of "milk shake" She rode him well.That night, I was also constantly bugged by my nephew Tayson. He kept pushing and knocking my head while I was drinking. I told him he should stop but he didn't listen. The next day we went to Misti's church for Julia's baby blessing. (She's getting so chubby) We ate dinner and again Tayson was a pain. I even heard Tiffani telling Tayson that he was going to pay because he was messing with her. So the girls got together and came up with a plan to shut that boy up. Tiffani grabbed him from behind, Kandice grabbed his arms, Misti his legs and me I had the duc tape. I never realized how strong that boy was. I was finally able to free my legs from his legs and I began taping his legs then I went to his arms. I should have done that better. Then to really shut him up, I taped his mouth. Then we tried to carry him to his truck. That wasn't working so we dropped him on the floor.Hopefully he won't mess with his aunts again. Wishful thinking. After that I was a little nervous to be around him. We soon left to go back home. It sure is a long trip to make, but it is so much fun to be around family even if they all are sick.

Christmas 2008

So Christmas has come and gone (as a matter of fact, it came at 5:30 in the morning)This is the picture I got when I turned on the lights to tell them to go back to bed. and what do I have to show for it..... well, a third garage full of empty boxes and happy kids. Today I was asked how my Christmas was. I replied," that my kids were happy, so I was happy." This year out of all the years I felt like we had not wasted our money on anything. I was very careful to think.... would this be a waste of money. There were times I put things back and decided it was not important or not needed. The only thing that really hasn't been touched much is Mandy's guitar. It might just take a while before she decides its a real cool gift. (This of course was more of her father's idea.) This Christmas .... In Ashley's words were, .... no freakin way, no freakin way. She actually was surprised by her Christmas. This was of course her new ipod. Mike and I looked at the list and decided two days before Christmas that she needed something else. Believe me it was worth 150.00 to have happiness in our home. Mandy got a cell phone, Jase a magic kit, rocket, spiro game, bike, etc. Ellie got a bike and a pogo stick. Brooklyn got some animals, blocks, bubbles, candy bracelets and her most favorite was a scooter. You can find her pushing her scooter and singing songs as she slowly glides down the hall. It is so much fun to see her grow up. Mike got a new sound system for his guitars, (thanks to parents,) and I got a new cricut and a saw. And let me not forget, ...we got a wii. This has been fun for all. Mike needs to work on his tennis game though. (he claims he is good at tennis but the video shows differently.So, another Christmas has come and gone but it was a very fun and not too stressful of a Christmas. Now, is there someone who would like to pay my credit card bill!

Leading up to Christmas...

There are so many things that happen in the month of December that lead up to Christmas. Jase was in the nutcracker.(no pictures to show because they were deleted.) He did a great job as a folk dancer. I loved seeing him get into his dance and his big smiling face. Also, to add to the Christmas excitement, we decided we would do a money tree to give to someone. Instead of mom and dad giving all the money, the kids would do chores to earn money to help put on the money tree. Every time they did a chore, they would put a mark on the paper. Each mark represented a dollar. The person who earned the most money, would be the one who got to put it on the door step, knock and run. Mandy won hands down but Ellie worked hard to catch her. It was fun seeing the kids ask for chores and work hard at doing them. It is too bad that it has to end. (the only negative thing is the fighting because someone was wanting to do a chore and the other wanted to do it too.)

Mandy and Ellie helped roll all the money to place on the tree. This was not an easy task.

After many attempts to leave it and almost getting caught by their neighbor and Mandy busting open the cellophane bag that it was in.(this was all on one attempt,) They were finally home so we could leave the money tree. Boy were we glad to get rid of it. We also dipped cinnamon bears in chocolate and decorated gram cracker houses to help pass the time away. Brooklyn had more fun eating the candy than decorating the houses. This is Ellie and Mandy's idea of a gram cracker house.

With December came the snow. The kids spent many hours rolling and throwing snowballs. Ellie spent more time rolling than anything else. The neighborhood boys enjoyed more throwing.

Mandy, Jase, Brayden, and Dammon enjoyed climbing on Ellie's snowball. To end the school break, Ashley performed with her choir at their Christmas concert.

These are a few of my favorite things that led up to Christmas.