Decorating the tree

A few years ago my parents gave us their artificial tree. We put it up for a year or two and then I got sick of it. It was kind of a pain to put up and take down. Then I decided that I only wanted to get real trees from now on. After a couple years of that, I decided I wanted to go back to fake. I was tired of having to water it, only to have it dry up and then clean up the needles. Also, by Christmas it is usually so dry that I have to take it down the next day. Ideally I would like to keep it up until New Years. So, this year I was going to buy us a nice pre-lit tree. But, as money always is at this time of year, it is tight. So, I wasn't looking forward to having to spend a lot on a tree. I was telling this dilemma to my sister-in-law, Josie. She said that every year her family cuts their own trees. She offered to cut us one when they go. I just bought the permit, $10. Cheap! Just what I wanted!

They brought us a really cute tree. It is kind of sparse, but that is a given when you cut your own. But, I really liked our "Charlie Brown tree." So, Sunday night we began to decorate. I let the kids put on the ornaments. Somehow, the more decorations we got on it, the more Charlie Brown it became. By the time the kids were done, I couldn't bare to look at it anymore!! So, Dave went and dished them up some ice cream as a distraction and I tried to "fix" the tree. I basically took off all the decorations and attempted to space them out and make it look nice. But, a lot of my decorations are just too heavy for this little tree. So, we didn't end up using many of our decorations.







Bottom line, our little tree will not win any awards this year! :) But, I am sooo thankful for Dan and Josie and her family for getting this tree for us. Now that I look at the tree, it is cute. It is kind of fun not to have a perfectly shaped tree. It has personality! And, the kids had lots of fun decorating it. That is all that matters! They think it is the prettiest tree. It will be a fun memory for me!

Thank you again, Dan and Josie! That was sooo nice of you guys to offer to do that for us! You guys are so giving and kind and have done a lot for us this year. We appreciate it so much!

Paisley's Christmas program

Paisley's preschool had the opportunity to sing at the Festival of Trees a couple of weeks ago. She did such a good job! They sang six or seven really cute Christmas songs accompanied with some instruments and actions. Very cute!! Afterwards the girls and I ate lunch there, looked at the trees, and Paisley was very excited to get to sit on Santa's lap!


Avery with my parents :)

Quick trip!

Yesterday my sister-in-law and I took a quick shopping trip down to Salt Lake. She called me Saturday and said that she wanted to go get some decorations for her house at Taipan, a WONDERFUL store in Sandy. I had never been there and was excited!

I took the girls and we left as soon as I dropped Easton off at school. We ate lunch at Red Robin and then on to Taipan! It is a store full of affordable decorations and things for your house. Afterwards we went to IKEA which is one of my favorite stores. One of the best things is that they let you drop your kids off, the ones who are potty trained, to play and do crafts while you shop. We left Paisley in there and shopped for 2 hours! It was so nice. And, she had a lot of fun! We stopped on the way back at the Gateway Mall, which is an outdoor mall. During the day in Salt Lake it was about 57 degrees, sooo nice for the 1st day of December! So, shopping at the outdoor mall was doable!

It was a fun get-away. We shopped all day and we didn't get home until about 12:15 a.m.! It was a long day! The girls were really really good considering over 6 1/2 hours in the car in one day and lots of shopping. I was very thankful for them being good! I was able to get a couple Christmas presents that I had previously been stuck on, and so all in all the shopping trip was a success! (Thank you so much, Heather, for letting Easton play at your house after school! I owe ya!)

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Needless to say we had a great Thanksgiving and ate way too much, end of story! :)

We had Thanksgiving at my parents house. They just built a house and moved in in October and so it was fun for them to host it in their beautiful new house. We had way too much food, as normal, and ate until we were all miserable. Sooo good!

Afterwards Dave napped and I played Ticket to Ride, a great game, with my brothers and sisters-in-law. I lost miserably the first game and won the next. :)

The next morning I left my house with my mom and aunts at 3:40 a.m. to go shopping! We shopped nonstop, except for a 15 minute McDonald's break for breakfast, until 1:15 when I got home. It was really fun. I got almost everything that I had hoped to get, and more. But, everything I got was a good deal and I was able to make a big dent in my Christmas shopping.

Friday afternoon we went to Dave's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner #2. Again we ate too much and were miserable. But, we had fun and enjoyed the company!

The holiday season is in full swing and I am excited. I am really looking forward to the fun that December always brings. Christmas will be fun this year. Easton and Paisley are at really fun ages, and Avery will have her first year that she will start to "get it" a little bit. Fun, fun, fun!

A series of unfortunate events!

(Sorry this is a little long!)

One morning last week I was rushing to get out the door to take Paisley to her asthma doctor's appointment that was an hour away. I was all ready to leave and went to grab my keys from the key hook and they weren't there!! They are always there! (Unfortunately, when we bought our van the dealership only had one set of keys for it.) So, I went to quickly look in all the usual spots: my jacket pocket, the pocket of the pants I wore the day before, our dresser, the entertainment center, no where! As I looked I began to get that panic feeling, I HATE running late and I now was beginning to run late. I frantically called Dave at work, knowing that he hadn't driven the van last, but hoping he miraculously knew where they were. He, of course, didn't. I said a prayer, an official prayer, I had been praying in my head since I first couldn't find the keys. I kept looking and looking. By now I only had about 45 minutes to get there, not enough time, but close. I asked Paisley to say a prayer, hoping the sweet, pure prayer of my daughter would help me find them faster! And, when I only had 35 minutes until my appointment I called the doctor's office, apologized, and rescheduled.

I calmed down a bit since now I had no where to be. But, I just couldn't figure out where they would be. I looked everywhere I could think of, the toy box, the play room, the bathroom, my big nasty garbage in the garage (okay, I didn't look too hard there, but I did peak in.) I called Dave and told him that I still couldn't find them. He came home a while later to help me look. We looked and looked some more. Fearing that they were gone somehow, and knowing we couldn't go long with one car, we called the locksmith. We made an appointment for them to come out the next day.

A while back we went to Lowe's to get copies of the van key made. When we got home they didn't work. We found out our keys are "chipped" so they have something electronic in them so that it is not just a normal key. You have to have an expensive key and then program it to your car. Anyway, we had those "dummy" keys from Lowe's so we took them to the locksmith so they could make copies on chipped keys. Then they came out to program them to our car. Unfortunately after trying for a while, the guy told me that he couldn't get them to program and I would have to get the car to the Ford dealership for them to program them.

Keep in mind, I have no keys, so no way to get the car to the dealership. So, then I had to call a tow truck to come tow my van. When I called him he asked where the van was. I told him in my garage, he asked if I had anyway to move it. I told him, no. So, he proceeded to tell me that since it was locked in "park" they would have to put the van on "skates" to get it out of the garage and instead of a $75 tow fee it would be AT LEAST $250. I told him to hold off. With tears of frustration in my eyes, I took the "dummy" keys out and luckily, although they wouldn't start the car, they turned enough that I could get it in neutral and get it out of the garage so they could tow it.

So, they came and towed the van away. I thought later that my neighbors must have thought it was getting repossessed or something, great! Anyway, we got it to the dealership and got the keys programmed. My sweet mom came and got the kids and I and took us to pick it up. It ended up costing, $52 for the 2 new keys, $75 to tow the van, and $45 to program them. So, losing my keys cost me about $162! Fun!!

It was very nice to get my van back after 2 stressful days. I figured that the keys had been thrown away on accident or something. So, that night, I went and put my robe on before bed, as a usual routine. I suddenly felt something in the pocket of my robe, pull it out, MY KEYS!!!! Seriously! Like 3 hours after I spent $162, I find them. I had looked for two days! I usually wear my robe in the mornings after shower and at night before bed. Nope, not those days. I don't know why! And, I still have NO idea how they got there. I mean, obviously I put them there, but when and why is a mystery!! So, I was glad to find them. I went and showed them to Dave and said, "Isn't that funny?" He didn't find it so amusing for some reason!

But, my prayers were answered. Just not in the time I wanted, but they always say it is not in our time, but the Lord's. Maybe all that was some lesson for me. Who knows!! :)

(Thanks to Valerie and Megan for letting me borrow their vans to take Paisley to and from preschool so that I could still get the needed peace and quiet that preschool brings!)

2 new chipped keys- $52
towing your van to the dealership- $75
paying to program new keys- $45

Finding your keys the night you go through all that- PRICELESS!!!

HA HA

It's nice to be an experienced mom!

This cartoon doesn't have a lot to do with the post except coughing, I just thought it was funny!

The other night Easton woke up with the tell-tale signs of the dreaded croup. Many of you know all too well, the seal-like barking cough and the inability to breathe. Yep, croup. Fun stuff!

Easton got croup several times when he was a toddler. One night Dave went hometeaching and his partner was talking about croup. Dave asked what that was and the guy explained the symptoms and what to do for it. So, what do you know, about 2 nights later Easton woke up with his first ever croup episode. I am very sure that his talk with his hometeaching partner was inspired. Because of that we knew what it was and some things to do. But, it was always very scary for me and we ended up taking him to the emergency room several times in the middle of the night for it.

The other night was the first time he'd had it in years. But, we were prepared. It was like Dave and I were a well oiled machine. Both of us still half asleep, he grabbed a blanket, I grabbed Easton's coat and he took him out on the back porch into the cold air. As they were outside I turned on the bath with hot water and let them know when it was steamy. We let him sit it the steam for a while. We then gave him a breathing treatment, always on hand thanks to Paisley's asthma, and then put him back to bed with basically clear airways.

As I watched him with his breathing treatment, I thought how thankful I was for experience. I am not a new mom anymore. I have experienced these things that come along with parenthood and I know what to do. I don't panic every time. I just do what I know works. Don't get me wrong. I am definitely no expert and I really have a lot to learn. But, I am thankful for the mother experiences that I have had that help me with what challenges come my way.

No wonder our mothers and grandmothers know everything...experience!!

Sweet baby boy!

Yesterday we had a brand new baby boy born into our family. Mother and baby are doing great.

The mom (don't want to use any names for privacy because I haven't asked them if I could post this) :) went out of town yesterday to do some shopping. She wasn't due for about 3 weeks and figured she would be fine.

While she was there her water broke. So, needless to say, she had to have the baby in an unfamiliar hospital with an unfamiliar doctor! Luckily the dad was able to make it there for the birth!

Congratulations, guys! We can't wait for you to come home and let us hold your sweet new baby!!

Testimonies

Just wanted to share an experience from Sunday, mostly as a journal entry for myself.

Paisley and Easton both got up and bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting. It was Paisley's first time, Easton's second or third time. They bore simple testimonies that are similar to other children's testimonies. Paisley, however, added, "I love Jesus and I know that Jesus loves me." It was very sweet. As I was sitting there I wondered if I should let them go up at this young age. I just wondered if it took time away from some of the adults that might want to share their testimonies. But, they both did it on their own and so I figured it was okay.

Then in Relief Society, they turned it over for testimonies for the last few minutes. One sister in our ward got up and said that she wasn't planning on baring her testimony but that she had been touched by a sweet little girl's testimony. She repeated what Paisley said about her love for our Savior. She said that she was glad that her parents had taught her that He loves her. Then she ended by saying that she also wanted Jesus to know that she loves Him.

That really taught me a lesson. Every one's testimonies are important, no matter how small or how simple. You just never know what will be said that will touch some one's heart or that may be something that they need to hear. I am thankful that my children felt the need to publicly express their love of the gospel and of the Savior. I am glad that my daughter was able to touch some one's heart with her sweet, simple testimony.

I voted!

This is the 3rd presidential election that I have been old enough to vote in. I am really sad to say that today is the first time that I have voted for our president. I just really didn't feel that big of a need to vote. I felt that need this time around. It could be that I am older, I have children, and I really worry about the future of America. It also has a lot to do with a broadcast on the Sounds of Sunday by Glen Rawson this last Sunday.

You can read his message here. He talked about the Boston Tea Party and how that eventually led up to the Revolutionary War and our country's independence and freedom. I really enjoyed that part of the message. But, the part that really stuck with me was the last couple paragraphs.

He said, " Boston went to war for a voice in government, the right to vote. Now my friends, the right to vote is a fundamental expression of man's God-given agency.

Sadly, in the last presidential election, less than 50% of Americans voted. Or in other words, they surrendered the governing of their lives to someone else – which is exactly what Lucifer wanted in the first place."

That really struck me. We live in America where so many people have died for the right to vote. If I do not vote, not only am I not taking advantage of what so many people have done for me, but I am turning over my right to choose. Lucifer's plan did not involve freedom. His plan did not involve free agency. That is why his plan was not chosen. We have free agency, and as Americans we have the right to vote. I will not let that agency go to waste again.

As I waited in the long line to vote and then to turn in my ballot, I was proud. I really felt a sense of pride. I voted. I took advantage of this great right that we have. I am not turning it over to anyone else, I am putting in my say.

Forgive me for my moment on my soap box. I really felt strongly about that today.

Another small thing happened there that I wanted to share. Paisley and Avery were with me at the school when I voted. By the time I was waiting to hand in my ballot, Avery had had it! She was crying and there was nothing I could do to console her. Paisley, on the other hand, had been given a "job". There was a super nice lady working at the table. Paisley when to get an "I voted" sticker and the lady asked her if she wanted the job of ripping the stickers off the roll so that people could take them. I think she saw what a bad time I was having with Avery and thought she would help by keeping Paisley busy. I really appreciated that and Paisley thought it was fun. The lady behind the table kept telling Paisley and the people in line what a good job Paisley was doing. Anyway, the lady behind me in line, also seeing my struggle with Avery, said, "Can I just tell you that I think it is good that you brought your children with you to vote? Now, your daughter (Paisley) will have a memory with the stickers and she will remember this time. I am all about memories." I had never given that a thought. I was just trying to get through the time until I could leave. She was right. It was neat that Paisley got to be involved in the voting process, if even just a small job. And, she will remember. She felt important. I was, at that moment, also happy that I had brought my children so that they could see their mother use her right to vote in America.