The kids reaction to Christmas morning and Santa's gifts.






















Christmas was wonderful. Brielle was having trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve and I told her about my childhood family tradition: My dad would tell us to go to sleep as quick as possible on Christmas Eve to make the night go by faster and, thus, Christmas would come faster. We would drink "Sleepy Time" herbal tea with no sugar added to make us "sleepy", which was nasty without sugar, but we were afraid sugar would keep us awake, we chose to gag it down. Ahhh Christmas traditions. We'd wind down to the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" cartoon and sing carols, read the Christmas story out of Luke, and usually by that time we'd figure the herbal tea should take full affect, and we'd head off to bed.

I told Brielle this sleep-ytime stuff is NASTY. But that if she drank some, she'd be sleeping in no time and Christmas would come super fast. So she said she wanted some. I must have really hyped up the NASTY part about it because she was SO hesitant to sip it. And when she did, she commented that it wasn't THAT gross as if she was relieved. I wonder what she was anticipating! That stuff really is gross without sugar! The next day she said it didn't work and she heard Santa for a long time after drinking it. She heard him come in and out the front door a couple times, put the presents under the tree, put noise candy in the stockings, even wrap a few gifts. And she thought she heard him open a bag of cookies.

Well, we hid the kids' gifts at Todd's office so that explains the coming in and out the door when Todd left and then had to bring the gifts in from the car. Todd wrapped a few of my gifts, I dumped a bag of Jelly Bellies out to sort into individual bags, and little gum balls too, those are kind of noisy. And Todd wanted more than just a snicker doodle cookie so he broke into the Oreos. Brielle has some KILLER ears. That's all I have to say!!!!!! I know she didn't even get a peek out her door, not that she'd see anything from her room, but her door has very squeaky hinges that would alarm us all the way from a far end of the house if she happened to attempt opening it!

The kids had fun on Christmas. Brielle's main gift was a doll house (NOT Barbie, just a doll house that Barbie sized dolls fit in. I'm not too big on Barbie glam stuff). She got a couple Barbies to go with, but I had a heck of a time finding modest ones. She's not allowed to play with them unless they are dressed modestly! Ashton's main gift was a train set.. and a toddler remote control car. One grandma gave them mini Nerf guns and they had wars with those all Christmas morning. Brielle was also given a kids digital camera that she used to take 350 pictures of EVERYTHING in our house just on Christmas day. I wouldn't have thought to give a 4 year old a camera, but that has by far been her favorite gift! Another gave them kids kareoke that was really fun. The kids woke up that morning with colds so we had to skip out on sledding with Todd's dad like we had planned to. We got DUMPED on with snow for a beautiful white Christmas. But with all the new toys, they didn't act too disappointed to be stuck in the house all day. Todd on the other hand was pretty bummed about missing out on an adventure! We did go visit Todd's dad for a bit in the evening. We visited his mom for dinner on Christmas Eve.

I made up a family recipe book for Todd's mom and sister in laws for Christmas. It took me several days straight to get my recipes done and any of the other women's recipes that I had ever gotten from them, like when I was first married. It was really satisfying to see such a thick book for a finished product! But I hadn't even scratched the surface of what some of them have! So I gave the books away asking for them to give me any recipes they'd like to submit so I could type them up.

The day after Christmas, the kids were even more sick. Todd took his 4-wheeler to his dad's so his dad and brothers could have fun towing sleds behind it in their acre behind their house. I think Todd started to really get cabin fever stuck inside on all his days off!

By Saturday the kids were ok enough to get a babysitter and we went to a movie about one of the 15 attempts on Hitler's life by German traitors back in World War II. It was educational, but I'm not big on movies that don't have good endings. And it didn't, of course, since all attempts on Hitler's life by insiders failed until he surrendered when he was surrounded by Americans in the end.

New Years was fun. Todd's mom threw a party that we went to. Lots of card games and goodies. I had spent all day until the party and all day the day before typing up recipes they had given me and sitting so much made my legs and ankles really swollen. At the party, card game playing didn't really help either, especially since it was mostly sitting on dining rm. chairs up to a table. By the time I got to bed, after 1:00 am, I felt like the giant marshmallow man off of Ghost Busters! I have really battled with swelling way earlier on in this pregnancy than I think is at all normal. At least not for me. So I mean to ask my Dr. about it on Monday when I go in for my next apt. It's 2 days later and there is still a significant amount of swelling.

Today we went to Boise and I bought some larger, comfier undergarments and cotton stretchy pants because nothing is fitting my bigger swollen self!!!!! The large jeans I have are too big, but the size that should fit is cutting off circulation. While we were in Boise, we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese's for a little celebration. Tomorrow is Ashton's second birthday. We were going to celebrate it tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait one more day without feeling comfortable in my clothes. I think the elastic on things I was wearing was contributing to the swelling. The kids had a blast there and were really good. We'll still do presents and cake and ice cream tomorrow, but the fun was today.

The seller of the land we've been looking at called back to counter offer again. Still almost 10 grand over appraised value. I guess he did come down from being over THIRTY grand too high. We're in no hurry anymore. No point in being stupid. He can keep countering all he wants until he decides to really be fair. No one else is interested in this market. No one else would pay that much either!

I've done a bit of de-cluttering. Everyone being sick makes me feel like cleaning and de-germing the house. Then the new toys needing homes to be put away adds to that. And LAST... we're getting new carpet!!!!!!!!!!! Finally! I haven't had company over in so long because my nasty carpet is too embarrassing! It's cheap carpet with a cheap absorbent pad under it. So when ever anything has spilled, even being shampooed, it only gets so much. The stains stuck in the pad keep coming back up through the carpet and 5 years is all it's taken to be just disgusting. And it's lighter colored too. So we went for the second darkest carpet at Home Depot and a really high quality pad. We figure we're saving a lot of money to do it, plus it'll help our house sell when that time ever comes. We were having it shampooed every 3 months and really, it needed it every 10 days. That's all the longer it would last before we'd see the old stains again. We tried two carpet cleaning companies who clean with different cleaners/techniques. No difference. So that cost was adding up fast. It should be installed some time in the next two weeks. That was our big gift to ourselves for Christmas. And I'm SOOOO excited.

I braved story time with Ashton again. He actually did really well. Is it terribly pointless to go if we purposefully skip the story part? He just doesn't stay quiet enough for everyone else to hear. But we went the last two weeks for the songs, craft, and snack! And he loves those parts. It gets him out doing something different and fun.

Friday, the 5th I had another Dr. apt. Todd was in town for work,even though he wouldn't normally be because he doesn't work Fridays. He got the things done that he had to do about the time I drove in, so we met up and he took the kids home for me. Being alone in Boise, I took the opportunity to get a lot of Christmas shopping done. I shopped 'till I dropped! Which only takes an hour or so these days. I'm gaining a steady 6.5 to 7 pounds a month! Ah well, what do ya do?

I had a guy at church tell me once, not in any way kidding, that he'd never seen me wear the same thing twice. Now, why he was paying attention in the first place is really weird. And no, that's not true, would be exciting to be able to do. But the reason he must think that is that I go through so many sizes when I have a baby! I start at my normal size, grow to a non maternity bigger size, then maternity smalls, mediums, AND larges, have the baby, wear a larger non-maternity size, shrink down over a period of about 6 months another 6 sizes or so. And finally, after the year and a half or so, I'm back to or close to where I started. That's a lot of Sunday dresses! Especially if I don't want to wear the same dress over and over again while I'm one certain size. I wish I could be like the women who wear the same size the whole time, only with a growing tummy! I grow EVERYWHERE. A LOT.

Monday the 8th, Todd and I went with his brother and sister in law, Kris and Amber, to the Christmas Sweater presentation Glenn Beck gave. It was really really cool. He is a convert to the church of about 7 years and has overcome such a PAST. His story is softened and altered a little in his presentation to make an uplifting analogy for the Christmas season. It's about the atonement being a gift like a sweater to be worn and cherished not set aside on a shelf. I was so impressed with his talent. We had a great time.

The 11th I took the kids in to town to do some more Christmas shopping. We drove back to Fruitland about the time Todd got off work and went to dinner. We had a tithing settlement apt. a while after that and rather than go home and soon just load back up into the car again, we drove around looking at everyone's Christmas lights. The kids liked that, but we were surprised how few people did lights here this year! It has been kinda cold this year. Our neighbor 2 houses down and across the street did the peppermint thing Todd did on our house- switching out every other white light to put in a red one. They REALLY jazzed it up with peppermint windows and bushes. It looks really cool. But weird that they used our idea the same season two weeks after us being so in such "close proximity". And amped it up so much. I don't know, I feel odd about it, not knowing them really. Should that be weird? The only two peppermint houses in all of Fruitland are two houses apart...

Friday the 12th, Brielle and I did a mommy daughter night and went to the Nutcracker Ballet in Boise. She loves ballet from watching "Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses." And she's seen the "Barbie and the Nutcracker" too. I LOVED seeing The Nutcracker the very few times I went as a kid in Anchorage. So I was VERY excited that she's finally at an age to sit through it and enjoy it with me. I think I'll make it a yearly tradition for me and my girls from now on. But WOW were we under-dressed. We had taken the kids to Boise earlier to finish Christmas shopping by switching kids and dividing to help them buy gifts for the other parent and other sibling. Then Todd and Ashton drove home to catch a football game while Brielle and I went to the Ballet. So we looked like mall rats. Almost all the other people in the auditorium were in formals. The many little girls there with their mom's were in nicer dresses than I see in church on Christmas Sunday!!! We showed up in jeans! At least we know what to expect now. I felt super awkward, but it was really fun to watch. Just the right length for a child to sit through.

The next day was Todd's company Christmas party. We went early to greet the guests. It was fun, his mom was in charge of it this year and she had a few fun games to play like Christmas Bingo and Family Feud. Kris and Amber's kids were being babysat at our house with our kids. So we carpooled in together and decided to catch a movie after the party. Little Ashton, with all the other kids, was still up when we got home at 11:00! They were all having the time of their lives. But he's been kinda cranky ever since and it's been a week now! I would say it's been a long recovery, but on Tuesday I realized why. When I was getting ready for the Christmas party in the bathroom, Ashton was standing on a stool at the counter beside me babbling and pointing at what he thought I'd need to use off the counter next. He'd point to different things of make up or the brush. At one point, he actually touched the curling iron and started to scream. I quickly ran his hand under cold water. He seemed perfectly fine afterward and when I put him to bed that night, I was surprised to see there was no sign of being burned on his hand.

Tuesday night, when I was changing his clothes into pajamas, for the first time I saw the burn on his wrist, an inch above his hand, where it was covered by long sleeve shirts for three days. I had never noticed it getting his clothes changed until now and he hadn't complained about it specifically yet either. But it was not only burned, but blistered, broken blisters, and really super infected. I felt so bad! We took him to the Dr. Wednesday and they put him on an antibiotic and gave me a prescription cream to clean his burn with. Poor little guy. All these burns!

Wednesday I also did my visiting teaching and ran a gazillion small Christmas prep. errands. It's amazing how I can think I'm done, so many times! And then remember that I'm missing part of a gift or something. Maybe it's that pregnancy forgetfulness. I think I have that all the time, though.

Friday, the 19th, my sister in law, Katrina, had her baby boy! She was induced that morning and delivered in the afternoon. They named him Camden. We stayed away to give them some space throughout the day. We went to the Christmas party for Orion Home Health at 6:00. Todd and his brother and mom own it but don't run it. So we weren't in charge of any part of the party and it was nice to sit back and enjoy it. It was really fun.

Heart 'N Home hospice is several years older and has grown a lot and expanded to 4 offices in the area whose employees drove out here for that Christmas party. So greeting, games, and food and things all took a lot of time to finish up. Orion's party was just the right size and length of time for everything. But anyway, we left the party and headed to the hospital to visit Adam and Katrina and they're new little baby. He was precious. Gosh it's hard to be pregnant and hold a newborn! Super temptation to get impatient! I gotta go the distance with a positive attitude!!!! He was adorable. After that, we went to ice cream with Kris and Amber and then caught the new movie that came out that night, "7 Pounds." That was a crazy movie!" I still can't decide whether I liked it or hated it.

Today we went to Todd's mom's side of the family's Christmas party. She hosts it every year at her house. The grandkids do a white elephant gift exchange. The oldest grandkid, my niece Jordan, opened an etchasketch first. Ashton sat at her lap for the whole remainder of the gift opening as they went from oldest to youngest opening gifts. He didn't care what anyone else got, he wanted that little etchasketch OR ELSE. Which was good because that meant she could pick from all the other opened gifts something more age appropriate for her when Ashton stole it at his turn. He loves those things. Brielle opened princess pez dispensers. She was thrilled!

I've been wrapping presents here and there each night. I think I'm all done. I'm ready for the family names we drew, shipped out my side of the family's gifts, got Todd done, the kids done, visiting teaching gifts done, friends gifts done, stocking stuffers done, Christmas cards done, I think I'm done. But it wouldn't be the first time I said that! I'll remember someone/something else I'm sure! Like the cat. He could use a warm pillow to sleep on now that it's so cold!

Speaking of which. I taught a lesson in primary last Sunday about being kind to animals. When I got to the part about Jesus loving the animals because he made them and wants them to feel joy too... and wants them to feel loved too... I started to feel kinda guilty. We did such a horrible job with our last dog. She was a yellow lab. She was the apple of Brielle's eye when we got her as a puppy. Brielle was obsessed with dogs. But on the first day being home, she severed the chord on my iron, knawed the wooden dowels on my dining rm chairs, peep and pooped on carpet, barked and whined all night long, and was about to sever our computer cable when I caught her and banished her to the outdoors forever more. She sat in her kennel or at times around the yard destroying anything left out, for many long cold winter months. And couldn't come out of her kennel to play when the neighbor kids came over because she was too hyper being trapped up all day. Just such neglect. We loved her! We put her through a really nice training class, but we dropped out because work suddenly got crazy for Todd and he no longer had the time, I was pregnant and lacked the energy. Finally, close to her second birthday, she chewed off and swallowed a chunk of the chord to her heated water dish, which ruptured her gut, and she had to be put under as she was dying with no hope. We felt awful. What a miserable life! I felt too guilty to quit on her and give her away, but it would have surely been a favor to her.

Now with our cat, it is an OUTDOORS ONLY cat. I just don't do the whole indoors thing. We had every pet under the sun in our house growing up and the smell and stains and hair everywhere made me solidify that decision for my future home. But the neighbor cat comes and plays during the day, then goes home and sleeps inside on a nice fluffy pillow while my cat shivers outside the back door all night. He sits on a plant box outside a living room window and watches cartoons with the kids, he sits outside the glass door to watch when they play. He LOVES the kids and loves to play with them. SO. I read the part about loving animals to help them feel the Savior's love and about lost it. It reminded me of my Grandma Jackman. She nursed cats BEYOND their death beds with such loving care. To some, went too far. But she sure cared about every living thing with such compassion. So the cat upgraded to sleeping in the garage at night. We'll see where my conscience takes me from here.

Our peppermint Christmas lights!

The week of the 17th to 21st was pretty calm. Which we needed to really recover from traveling the week before. I did go to my sister in law's Pampered Chef party Thursday night. I've been invited to several before, but hadn't ever been able to make it to any of them before. I still have tons of Pampered Chef items that were given to me for my wedding that I really like. It was fun to see all their other products and how they're used.

Also that week, when I lifted a pot of Mac and Cheese off the stove to strain out in the sink, my little chef helper, Ashton tried to touch the pretty red burner and blister burned his four fingertips on one hand. He hurt too badly to sleep at nap time and wanted to cuddle most of that day. Poor little guy. I hope he learned not to touch things anymore when I say "HOT".

That weekend Todd put the Christmas lights up on the house. He owned a professional little holiday lighting company to help get through school when we lived in Pocatello and loves to do fun things with the lights. This year he replaced every other white C7 light with a red one and the house is all lit up like a peppermint with mini red lights lighting up the pine tree in front. I really really like it!

Last week, my good friend, Lisa had her birthday. So some friends and I threw her a little dessert buffet party and mingled a bit Tuesday night. That same day the pellet stove repairman came and revamped our pellet stove so we've had a toasty holiday. Ashton repeats after me every time I point to it saying, "Hot." And he hasn't dared touch it!

For the Thanksgiving holiday, we went to Todd's mom's house for dinner and games. My sister, Rachele, had plans to eat with the family of a friend of hers. So we made our own Thanksgiving dinner the next night to include her and also to have LEFTOVERS. I always get assigned my jello salad to Turkey Dinner with Todd's family and having only jello for leftovers all Thanksgiving weekend just doesn't do it for me. We had gone to see the new movie, Australia, for date night, and had the turkey roasting at home, but that movie is LONG!!! The turkey was done by the time we got back and I hadn't started on the other things like mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. So it was a late meal. But still worth all the leftovers!

On Thanksgiving Day, Ashton started showing some pink eye. My mother in law is a nurse and knows all kinds of health care tricks. For anyone else who didn't know, Johnson's tear free baby shampoo applied to the eyes with a soppy wet wrag every hour or so will get rid of pink eye in under two days. But as soon as his was gone, Brielle started with it. And her throat started hurting enough that she didn't want to eat ANYTHING. Then both kids started to come down with fevers and cold symptoms. My mother in law looked at their throats and said Brielle had Strep Throat. So we spent two hours at the Dr. office yesterday waiting with the crowds to be seen for that. I brag too much that my kids don't get sick and then it comes back to haunt me. Ashton had strep, pink eye, and an ear infection all at once. Brielle "just" has strep and pink eye. Good gravy. Hopefully they can get it all over with at once!

I'm starting to get insomnia. I can't get my mind to settle down to sleep. Maybe too much is going on, but it doesn't seem like it. This week we did get a counter offer on the offer we made on this land we like so much. The counter offer was terrible! Hardly below what he was asking in the first place, which is quite a bit more than market value.

We own another plot of land that we bought very cheaply with a group of people and split off our portion for investment property. But it hasn't sold in the almost two years it has been on the market. We could build our house on it, but it's further from town than I want to be, not as appealing looking of land, bigger acreage than we care to take care of, and in another ward's boundaries. Which, yeah, wards split, but I'd rather split with SOME people I know rather than start ALL over again getting to know everyone and getting all the same callings over again (I'm so terrible). Anyway, for the first time in all that time, we have a family calling asking about that land and saying they are GOING to make an offer. But their realtor thought the offer would get written up over the weekend and it didn't. I guess the family got caught up in holiday events. Then he said they'd have the offer in by today and it's still not in. So if they ever DO make an offer the land, and the seller of the piece we want to buy won't sell at a price we'll pay, we may be in a sticky predicament of selling off what we don't want and having no options in the end. That does kind of create a little anxiety in the background of my mind when I'm trying to sleep. I'm trying not to let it matter enough to stress me out. It is just land. But land is such a drama here. This must be the last town in all of the USA where people's prices have hardly dropped from the economy's pull. Yet nothing sells. Sellers just WONT budge. The bank won't appraise poperties for those prices. And loans are far too difficult to obtain creatively to try to not have to fork over the remainder of the cost of things above what appraisals allow a loan to cover. If I didn't know EXACTLY what this guy paid for his land, EXACTLY what the bid to develop it was (before when oil prices for paving were actually more than they are now) and how much it costs to run the project through the county to approve it, MAYBE I could be fooled into thinking the seller really needed every dime he's asking for the piece we want. But we intended to buy it and made our offer two hours after him. We're offering him the amount we would have charged had we been the owners of it and developers of it. And it's not really worth THAT now either. My sister in law is a realtor and gave me comps to make my offer with, it was more than a fair offer. The banks and every builder/developer I've talked to has said not to offer more than what I offered because it is not valued at any more than that in this market. Vent vent vent. I pray he'll just come to his greedy senses and take our good offer so we can be done with this.

On to more positive things!!! Today, Amber (my sister in law) and I through a baby shower for our other sister in law (Katrina) who is due to have a baby boy in two and a half weeks. Her first. It was a lot of fun, but very crowded! Usually nearly half the people you invite can't make it. But nearly everyone on her guest list came! Over 30 people! It was held in the community rm/conference rm. at Todd's hospice office. It has a large conference table in it and is large enough for crowds. But there were still so many poeple that we BARELY fit in the rm with chairs along walls and in the doorway. I spent a few hours today making baby bingo and we couldn't even play it because there wasn't enough surface space to play on with that many people! But that's always a very good sign gift-wise and she did really well with the amount and variety of gifts. We had a lot of Todd's cousins/aunt/grandma there and I haven't seen them in a while. It was great to catch up with them!

I had sewn a little hanging diaper caddy for Katrina that matched the bedding she made for her nursery. It was a fun project and it turned out really cute. But it reminded me how much I miss my mother. We just weren't meant to raise our own families far from our mothers. This year alone I've brought myself to tears too many times in the frustration of wishing she were closer to teach me the things I never took advangtage of her knowing before.

We started our food storage this year. I got a wheat grinder this year and started making whole wheat bread from scratch. I've had to learn the art buying and using food storage from the internet, other women in the ward, buying books on it, and have even asked a lady in our ward to set up a mini bread making class so I could learn her delicious recipe, but there's still so many mistakes that I make. I wish my mom was standing next to me to correct me before I ruin the recipe ten times over!

I bought lots of dry goods for our food storage that I inteded to can with a sister in my ward who promised to call me when she got ahold of the stake's canning machine and she forgot to call me when she did it. I don't know the first thing about using it on my own. Then in canning season I picked 3 boxes full of apples to make applesauce and another lady in the ward promised to have me over when she made her recipe so I could learn how with her. She never returned my calls to see when she'd do it. She did it without me and my apples rotted! We ate a lot of them whole, but I just don't know what to do with them. My mom made yummy applesauce when we were kids. She could teach me.

Now with sewing, she MAJORED in it in college. There is so much she could teach me, she's a GOLD MINE of knowledge and I finally want to learn. I'm a late bloomer with the whole domestic world out there. But I love it and want to learn. And only moms take the kind of interest in someone like me who is dying to learn it ALL now. If I could stand Alaska in the winter and if Todd could talk his family into moving their business there, I'd go live down the road from my mom in a heart beat. My kids just LOVE my parents. They talk about wanting to visit them again, LITERALLY almost every single day. Brielle draws them hundreds of pictures and asks to call them all the time. We were just meant to not leave too far from home. But I feel like Fruitland IS home. Nowhere else feels like Fruitland does to me.

Gosh I need to sleep more, I can tell I'm turning into a big baby on here! Back to the shower! As soon as the shower was over, I rushed to our ward's Christmas enrichment night and caught the lesson at the end of the dinner. Elder Nattress of the Seventy is in our ward and his mother came from UT for the holiday. She was the guest speaker and she was awesome. I had to break away right after THAT, to be home for Todd to leave for our ward's men's basketball game tonight. Brielle snuggled up with me as I finished her Strawberry Shortcake movie with her and then she went to bed. If I'm SUPER smart I'll be headed off to bed soon too!

One last quick story. The other day Ashton came in to see me hollering in total frustration and a little pain. He had gotten into the cupboard under the bathroom sink and found Brielle's old potty training toilet seat that you set on top of your regular toilet seat. It has a foam padded seat top and a plastic under side. He had smartly tried it out as a hat and couldn't get it off his head because the hard underside made it difficult to slide back off his head. I'm sure the pad made it seem so easy to put on! It was actually really hard to get off his head! We pulled a minute on this side then that. I put water on it to help slip it off. It did come off after a minute, but left a toilet ring and a sort of rash like rug burn all across his forhead and made him holler pretty hard. We all get our share of toilet ring.... but who gets it on their HEAD! Only Ashton...


Here's a few pictures from yard work this past weekend!

I've been trying to play more with the manual settings on my camera. Here's a few trail runs today.





Tuesday was Enrichment night. We were supposed to have a bonfire out at Stake Pres. Barlow's property but it poored rain! So we met up at my good friend, Lisa's house and had our hot cocoa and doughnuts inside. We all just mingled and shared favorite things; websites, shops, quotes, scriptures, etc.

Wednesday I opted out of taking Ashton to story time since he was such a bear at the last one. He had orange juice on the way there in the car and couldn't bring it in to the library. So when I shut the car door with his OJ inside and him standing outside, he dropped to the pavement in a massive fit. We're seeing a lot more of these fits lately. He waved and kicked so hard that my attempt to carry him in to the library and out from the street failed. So I ended up literally dragging him in by the arm. So embarassing. Usually entering a building like that instantly distracts him and he calms down but this time he flailed his body around going through the doorway so that his forehead whirled into the doorway and got a honking big goose egg on his forehead. He hollered all the way in to the bathroom where I tried to calm him down. We stayed long enough to do the craft and snack but missed the story and songs and I think I even had to drag him OUT to the car.

Wed. night we took the kids to Todd's mom's to stay the night since Todd and I had a flight making us leave town at 6:45am the next morning. His mom kept the kids for the full weekend with their cousins as well. My brother and sister in law, Kris and Amber, drove to Cedar City while we flew. We met up in the afternoon for the beginning of the conference we came to attentd at George Wythe University. They offer a Masters and PhD in subjects that Todd is super interested in. We were all SUPER impressed with the things we learned about the university, the teachers there, and the current students. We have a couple friends attending there right now who have spoken so highly of it. So anyway, we felt the trip was worth it. Todd is hoping to start working toward his Masters and then his PhD, beginning this January. They offer distance studies where the teachers come to your home town for a lecture once a week and you read at home, then discuss back and forth online with professors and fellow students. You have to have at least 10 students enrolled for them to come to you. And it looks like they will have about that. So he's excited about it.

On Friday night we were lucky to get to see my parents. They were driving through to SLC from Palmdale, CA to see my dad's brother be sealed to his wife and her two children (from a previous marriage) in the temple. We all met up at the Cedar City theater to see the new James Bond movie that came out that night. We bought the very last 5 tickets to the show and seating was rough. We walked in as some of the employees were asking people to scoot to the center. I was able to sit with my parents with Todd right behind us and Kris and his friend, True, who drove down for the conference with him and Amber sat in the very back. Their wives stayed home since it was the later show at 9:30. I had fun chatting with my parents afterwards. Just random icing on the cake to get to bump into them there while we were down there.

We had flown in to Las Vegas, then rented a car to drive the rest of the way to Cedar City. I'm glad we did that rather than drive the full distance there with everyone else because I got so swollen just sitting in the conference for 3 days. I never would have made it home in a car driving the full trip. There were no evening flights to get us home on Southwest, Saturday night. So we drive to Vegas and went to the Phantom Of The Opera and stayed that last night there. Then flew home the next morning. It was much needed time just relaxing. Honestly, my ankles were nearly as wide as my calves and I couldn't fit shoes on my feet. I could barely wear flip flops. I didn't get this swollen EVER when I was pregnant with Ashton and only in the very end when I was pregnant with Brielle. I was only 21 weeks along like this! Not good!

We got home yesterday and were very excited to see the kids. We missed them immensely. They had a blast with their cousins but it was nice to see they were excited to come home.

We spent the day unpacking and doing a deep clean on the living areas that got a little out of hand packing before we left. I usually can't even pack until the house is immaculate. As if my brain doesn't function with a cluttered home or something. But the kids left their mark on it while we were packing.

I'm really struggling keeping up with them! As soon as I get done putting one thing away, Ashton's pulled out and set down another. If I keep busy working on a certain task, he keeps busy breaking out the glue sticks and gooping up all parts of windows within his reach and dancing around in the cat food he's tossed all over the kitchen floor. He loves to apply Todd's deoderant to his lips for lip gloss, and a few nice smelling smudges on the counter top to spruce up the room. Then there's my make up he uses as crayons in my bathroom. No height or hiding spot is out of reach. Or too hard to climb. Brielle tries to help clean or at least inform me when he's into trouble, but she quickly loses focus cleaning or gets busy drawing at her desk as Ashton breaks away. When the baby comes and he sees that he actually loses more of my attention, I'm doomed. Any suggestions? Today, I got most of the work done during their nap time and then took them out of the house to get groceries so Todd could actually see it clean for a moment when he got home for work!

I'm guessing part of my problem with Ashton's messes is that it's getting too cold for the kids to play enjoyably outside. Ashton would still be out there all day in a heart beat. But Brielle hates the cold and Ashton doesn't like to be alone out there. So I'm used to them spending a good portion of the day playing to their hearts content outside and now they're inside all day trying to find interesting things to do and exploring drawers and closets that were never curious to them before.

I bought oragomy paper for craft time tomorrow. I just don't know how enthused Ashton will be about that. I know Brielle will love it. She's been really into making paper airplanes lately since her primary teacher made her one a couple Sundays ago.

Enough of my tazmanian tornado worries. I'm off to brainstorm Christmas presents. Things that make the least amount of mess...

For Halloween, I fed the kids a healthy hearty meal before heading to the Trunk Or Treat. I figured we'd eat the soup at the Trunk Or Treat for dinner last year and Brielle refused to touch it, pigged out on candy, and ended up puking on Todd's lap later that evening. So we learned our lesson! After eating, we loaded up and did the Trunk Or Treat thing, then trick or treated the grandparents here, went home, ate a few pieced of candy, and sent the kids to bed! It was the fastest smoothest Halloween ever! Brielle's Rapunzel wig kinda spun itself in cirlces around Brielle's head all night. So I fussed over and fixed it a lot that evening. Ashton never tried to strip, which was nice.

Nov. 1st was my nephew, Jayden's baptism. He was so excited! And it was the first baptism Brielle's been to since she's been old enough to understand. She thought it was awesome. We all met up at Fiesta Guadalajara where they have a large group room upstairs for dinner. We gave Jayden a birthday/baptism gift of a picture of the Savior walking a little boy along.

Tuesday was election day. Todd and I are Constitutionalists. We've been very dissapointed but not suprised by the lack of understanding of the constitution in our polititions. The majority of Americans are not taught very much about it or about which things occur in our nation that are accepted today as normal and even embraced by the people, yet are very unconstitutional. It's been a slow and steady deviation, leader by leader, from the diety-inspired document that made this country free. Suffice to say, election night was no party for us. But we could at least appreciate the monumental achievement for our country that an african american man was elceted president. As well as the overwhelming joy that flooded the nation and the globe, really, upon Obama's victory. I think the first step to healing any wrong doing in our country should be a positive attitude and an outlook of joy from the people, even if I disagree on the tactics of how the leaders will make changes.

On a meagerly positive side, Proposition 8 passed by a hair. The tidal waves of rage, indignation, media, desicration of sacred temples and churches is rampant. My family has been roughed up, you could say, over the issue. My brother is gay and lives in Holleywood, CA. My family is devout LDS. You can imagine the struggles felt on both sides within my family. I've exhausted the subject lately in heartfelt e-mails between my brother and I, conversations with friends and community members, and hearing the saddened tone of my parents telling how my brother will not be coming home to visit for a while- not even for Thanksgiving- his decision. I've never been more broken hearted. But have felt the love of my Heavenly Father for my brother, and my family members. I am grateful for God's loving reminders that the opposition is not against myself, or my church, but against God Himself. And as I stand up for values the Lord himself designed, while others try to alter them and make strenth of faith look evil and wrong look right, I can rest assured, I stand where I belong.

On to the happiest part of the last two weeks... The 7th was my Dr. apt. and ultrasound. It's a GIRL!!! I'm super excited. As of right now we're planning on naming her Lainey. We're not sure on the spelling. So let me know if there's different variation you think makes more sense or looks better. I'm taking a poll. I'm not one for super creative spelling, I like it to be straight forward- something people would assume the spelling to be if they heard the name in class, for example, and needed to write it down. But I can't decide which version is the more straight forward (Laney, Lainey, Lanie, etc). I'm officially over half way done with the pregnancy. The depressing part is that I've felt much farther along than that for some time now so to think I have all that same amount of time to wait STILL and being larger and more uncomfy, yes, all the other moms can sympathise.

Sat. the 8th we had our ward's Primary Program Practice and ice cream party afterward. I was asked to take pictures of the ice cream party for a slide show to be shown the next day after the kids did the program in church.

When that was over, I headed home to work on my chicken project. Our ward does an e-mail chain if anyone hears of extra special sales in the area or news of free apple picking in orchards, etc. Red Apple, our local Western Family grocery store had boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for something like 1.29 per pound and the option to buy large cases full of 40 pounds each. A bunch of friends and family members jumped on the e-mail and reserved a few cases for food storage. Myself and two other good friends went in on a food saver to package it up and freeze it longer term. I got 80 pounds of chicken and trimmed and bagged it all in under 2 hours! I'm liking this food saver!

Sunday Brielle participated in the Primary Program. Her sunbeams class talked about the things they enjoyed doing with thier families. She said, "I like to go 4-wheeling with my family." And she sang a lot more than I usually see her sing. I always thought I'd have a Foster singer since all of my family was singing sonnets before they could walk! But Brielle has been shy with her voice.

I brought the 2 dozen cookies I was assigned to Sharing Time and the kids ate them and watched their slide show. They all chanted the names of whomever they were seeing pictures of the whole time!

Ashton is really roaring into the terrible twos. He's cutting his hair every chance he can get (he did it 4 times last week, each by unearthing a lost pair of scissors), he's still into the bathroom soap, except for today since we are completely out of it (his doing), he has discovered pushing his toddler table chairs to certain mischevious locations. His favorite being the counter in the kitchen with the wooden knife block up on it so he can play with knives (Brielle NEVER did this) and pushing the chair just under the key rack so he can push the panick button on my key chain and sound the car alarm for all the neighborhood to hear. He does this DAILY now. He climbs out of his crib and bangs on the door at least once, sometimes more when we put him down for bed, he throws fits if I try to change his diaper so I have to scissor pin him down across the chest with my legs to have one arm pin his arms down and the other free to actually change the diaper. He's just CRAZY!!! And he loves Todd's electric shaver. So many more with no time to mention. I'm suddenly SOOOOOOO relieved to be having a girl. My boy is proving to take more energy than I can muster up in a day! Yes, he's still the apple of my eye and cute as can be. A cute little apple with far too devilish an imagination!

The leaves are almost completely fallen off the trees now. It's starting to get cold enough out for scarves, which I love wearing! I feel like Christmas shopping already! But anyway, it keeps raining on the leaves before we can rake them into pouncing piles. So the other day when I caught a glimpse of Ashton and Brielle jumping in the leaves that had fallen on the trampoline, I quickly peeked the camera through the cracked open back door and snuck a few shots of them playing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to watch my children play happily together. That is my heaven.

Wednesday was my dentist apt. Brielle was in pre-school and Ashton hates being babysat alone without her. So I braved the idea of bringing him along. The whole time Ashton just sat on my lap and stared with big bug eyes while the dentist cleaned my teeth. He was so cute and quiet.

That evening Matt Georgeson, the second counselor in the bishopbrick came by to issue Todd a calling. He'll still teach Gospel Doctrine for Sunday School, but they were wanting him to be the designated Spanish speaking ward missionary for our ward. Which, Matt said, would mean Todd would not do weekly things with the other ward missionaries. But would only go out to teach if our ward missionaries found a spanish speaking investigator. I guess the spanish branch is struggling for volume of members enough that each ward has been asked to fill this position. So a second calling, but only sort of. It shouldn't require much time.

Friday I did some visitting teaching. Todd loves reading the Ensign but always steals it off to work or somewhere I can't find it and I didn't have time to look up and print out the lesson off the internet. So I taught my lesson from the quote by Elder Ukdorf from the the Women's General Relief Society Broacast that impressed me so much... "Happiness is your heritage." Brielle always loves visitting teaching because I teach mothers of her friends and she gets a great play date out of it.

Friday afternoon, we packed up and drove to Tamarack to stay the night in our friends' cabin with them and 2 other families we are good friends with. It was tons of fun. The first night Ashton kept me up literally all night long trying to keep him quiet so everyone else could sleep. So the next day we were too exhausted to drive home. Which was a bummer because it was the adult session of Stake Conference Saturday night and that's by far my favorite part of Stake Conference. And the next morning was Stake Conference. Some other friends drove home early Sunday morning to make it. We had traded rooms with another family because their room had a giant closet in it big enough to put Ashton's play pen in and have us all get some sleep. It was VERY easy to sleep that night and we needed it! But yes, we skipped conference. We've already been harrassed for it, much to our surprise...

Saturday, we girls took a morning walk and it felt good to be moving after no sleep. It woke me up enough to enjoy the day with our friends. That afternoon, Todd and the guys went on a 4-wheeling ride and had a blast. They went off roading all up the mountain and rooster tailing through mudbogs. When they came back we almost couldn't tell who was who driving up the driveway because they were so muddy in the face! . That night we played a few fun games. I'm a game person, I loved that part. They had a wrap around porch that the kids never got sick of running around and around and around. It got their energy out! I don't know where Ashton found his, he did take a super long nap. And he was suprisingly happy and good all day having not slept at night.

Sunday we drove back in the early afternoon so we could have the evening at home to relax before the week started. Our kids were in heaven the whole time up there. And with the exception of Ashton's behavior the first night, Todd and I were too. It was just beautiful and we always love getting away to that area, especially with friends.

Monday we went and walked the piece of land we've had our eyes on for a while to talk with the seller about it. He actually beat us by two hours with his offer on it when it was up for sale 6 months ago or so. It had already been engineered to the county's taylored specifications to be developed into a neighborhood of a few lots with small acreage. Something we've been looking for now for 4 years. But he went ahead with the plan to develop it and started the pleas with the city and county to get it approved. They don't approve ANYTHING these days, including several neighborhood proposals we were very interested in buying lots from, in the past. But last week he received the final approval to go ahead with it. Which was exciting to us, but still, it all depends on whether or not he takes our offer.

Just the idea of paying ANYTHING for it frustrates me. If we had gotten our offer in (which would have been accepted because it was the seller's asking price) before this guy, we'd have developed it, sold the pieces, and not owed anything on the lot we wanted, plus had remaining profits to really pay down the mortgage on the house we would build. He gave us his prices Friday. So Monday was about understanding all of his CC&R rules, the development time-line, association fees, whether irrigation came with it, if septics, power, and wells would be included, etc. So we're in the process of talking to the bank, not the best time in out economy to be doing that but we've been polishing up and preparing for it to go smoothly, and we're putting together an offer. We'll see what happens. It's kind of my last attempt. If it doesn't work out, I'm staying here forever. Ok maybe not forever. But I'm tired of the drama buying land has been for us here these past years.

The development being approved through the county has gotten me motivated to revise our house plans. I drew them up over a year ago and never quite finished them when, the day before closing on that land, we found out it was filled land and not yet buildable. Information the sellers withheld. So we opted not to buy it and go through the trouble of compacting that much land and changing the layout. It's been a long break, but drawing again has been fun. I really enjoy drawing floor plans. If I went back to school with the intent to work, drafting would probably be my first choice.

We bought an iMac computer for Todd's schooling since they are virtually ironproof to the IBM viruses out there everywhere. His online school's website made our IBM very vulnerable. We quickly got very used to having two computers, we'd often both use them at the same time. Todd is done with school now, but iMac's are so hard for me to understand and use. And many of my favorite programs are not usable with an iMac. So two months ago, when our IBM fried with a virus, we still went and got another one to replace it. But from the get go, it had constant issues dropping the internet. We knew it was not the internet because Todd's iMac worked fine with internet when mine would be down. We had both of the IT employees at Todd's office come over and work with it 3 times. We took it in to Geek Squad at Best Buy where we bought it the 4th time. They said they fixed it. But it did it again. The internet only ever worked on it one day each time it was fixed (that very day) in the two months we owned it. In the end it would drop power. It would say it was on but wouldn't pull up a screen. We tried other monitors at Todd's work, they didn't work either. So we complained strongly enough to Best Buy that they traded us out for a new computer that was actually a significant upgrade.... because they said our computer was no longer sold there. Surprise surprise. But we were very excited to get a better one at no extra cost. We got home, and couldn't get the screen to work on it either. We finally got that working and went to turn it on and couldn't log in because it was asking for Tanya's password. It was used. Skipping to the end of the story, we now have driven 4 hours and gone about 55 days without a computer (or at least the uses we needed it for) when we paid for a nice brand new one, and we now have a very nice IBM with twice the processor and 4 times the memory of the one we actually paid for. Todd told his IT guys what we ended up with and they were both shocked that we got away with that nice of computer. I guess that does make the hassell seem worth it! We saved hundreds of dollars!

Tomorrow is Brielle's Halloween party at pre-school so I'm off to take in her Rapunzel dress...it's a bit too big.

I have had some FUN!!! Friday, the 17th, I dropped the kids off with their Grandma Lee and Todd took me to the airport bound for Portland to have a Girls Getaway for the weekend. (Maiden names) Stephanie Mason, Sara Claeson, Cortney Logan and I met up there to spend the next 3 days in a beach house in Seaside. It was so fun from the get go to be in their company. I hadn't seen Steph in 3 years or so, Cortney in 5 years and only for a moment, and Sara since we were 17.

We headed straight to Seaside and checked in to the beach house. It was so cute, homey, and bright! We had dinner at Doogers, the local steak and sea food restaurant. I had forgotten that I had been there when Todd, Brielle, and I spent a weekend in Seaside a couple years ago. Super yummy. Then we hit the grocery store and kept well within our budget, much to our surprise since everything is more expensive there. We spent most of our time that weekend talking and talking and talking, playing "Remember when...", watching chick flicks, staying up late having too much fun talking, cooking together, walking the beach, shopping the shops, looking for the world's best taffee, making cards, and we even attended the Seaside ward for church. I heard so many stories I was a part of as a kid, but had COMPLETELY forgotten about. It was good to get a nice chunk of my childhood back. Church there was such a refreshing experience.... just to hear every talk and attend every class! They were very used to visitors on vacation, and very friendly. We stopped at the "Goonies Beach" on the way home. We were all pretty excited about that since we all love that movie. It was such a beautiful day. All weekend we had beautiful weather! We even toured a hotel's variety of rooms that overlooked that beach to plan to come back to it next year for our next getaway. We visited the Tillamook Cheese factory and had Tillamook cheese, clam chowder, cheeseburgers, ice cream, and chocolate milk. I paid for that in a giant stomach ache all night! But it was worth it!

I loved the drive home in all the forest's Fall leaves. It finally started to rain at the end of our drive. We made one last stop at the Portland IKEA store. I hadn't ever been to one before and it was massive!!! Full of really cool gadgets and furniture. Finally we said good bye at the airport. It was so fun to be with those friends, especially to get to know Cortney better since we had the least history together. She's awesome. Everyone was. Just an amazing time. I'm shocked at how little any of us had changed. Everyone was stronger, mature, wives, mothers, etc. But personality wise, in all ways important, we were the same. Everyone was still the sort of person I'd choose out of a crowd to be friends with and want to spend a weekend with.

Todd was a sweetheart to let me go. He has wanted me to do something like that for a long time. So he was more than happy to take a half day off of work Friday and most of the day off on Monday to accomodate it and watch the kids. By the last day, when I'd call him, he was doing most of the talking on the phone and not wanting to get off. And as much as I enjoyed it, I had to laugh because it reminded me of all the times he goes on business trips and I'm the one stalling on the phone to get another minute longer of adult conversation!!! It was good to be back in his arms again at the Boise airport, though. He had Rachele come over to be at the house while the kids slept in their beds so he didn't have to keep them up super late to come get me.

The next day, Tuesday, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch to get their pumpkins. Halloween is in the air! We're all excited! Especially Brielle since she gets to be Rapunzel and she thinks that long blond wig is the coolest thing since princesses were put in existence! Ashton on the other hand, when we tried his costume on he instantly started trying to strip. Not the reaction I was going for. He's a knight in shining armor and the costume I bought appearantly has velcro shoulder plates and breast plate because they were the first to go. I may have to alter some things to prevent that from happening all night at the trunk-or-treat.