Festival of Trees

We thought it would be a fun idea to get in the Christmas mood by going to The Festival of Trees on Friday night. There were some incredible trees and gingerbread houses! I can't believe the time and money spent on making the most amazing things to donate. 100% of the proceeds from Festival of Trees goes to Primary Children's Hospital, which I'm sure makes it easier to swallow donating so much time and money, not to mention how much the people that purchase the trees and wreaths and gingerbread houses must pay! Johnny especially liked the Star Wars tree, we thought the BYU gingerbread stadium was pretty cool, Maggie loved watching the dance performances and Josie was glad to have her aunt Micki & uncle Spencer with her to hold her and keep her entertained. The kids had fun making crafts, and we learned next year that we won't wait until Friday night to enjoy the festival, but we'll go earlier in the week and try to avoid the crowds.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

December 1st brought with it all the signs that it's beginning to look like Christmas. Before the storm hit, John put the Christmas lights up on our house. I stayed out there the whole time to watch and help, it was so exciting! This is our first year of having a house to put lights up on and it was great going to the store to pick out lights and we couldn't wait until it got dark so that we could admire them.

Thankful Tree

A couple of weeks ago for Family Home Evening we made a Thankful Tree and hung it on our front door. I wish I would've taken a picture of it that first day to compare with the finished product. Every night after scriptures and prayer we would all take 2 leaves and write something we were thankful for so that we could fill the tree with leaves before Thanksgiving. Tonight we finished our tree and read all the leaves and all that we're grateful for. Some examples of what our family is grateful for: Games for our Wii (probably every one we own), our family-- and extended families, books, webkinz, shoes, job, Barbie, magic erasers, our house, schools, clothes, treats, and then Johnny and Maggie also added: scriptures, Jesus, Christmas, prayer, and church. This was a fun activity and it was fun to read all the different things we have to be grateful for, and I'm extremely grateful that my kids know what is really important and who we have to be grateful to for all the blessings we enjoy. We're trying to teach them the true meaning of Christmas this year after I asked Maggie one day what her favorite part of Christmas was and she answered, "getting presents". So, we're working on that, which is a whole blog entry another time! Anyway, I have so much to be grateful for and I never want to take for granted all the daily luxuries we enjoy-- especially being able to live in a house this year! Yeah! I love my garage, but I know that the first time it snows and I'm not going to have to scrape my windsheild-- I'm going to love it even more!! We feel so blessed, and one of our greatest blessings is our families. We're so happy to be near both our families this year and hopefully every year to come. Happy Thanksgiving, XOXO!

Happy Birthday, Johnny!

November 15, 2007

Johnny's 7th Birthday Events:

7:00 a.m. Wake up to decorations, eat breakfast, get ready for school

7:15 a.m. Mom and Dad let Johnny open one present to ease the wait time for Dad to get home from work

11:00 a.m. Mom takes cupcakes into class at school

11:30 a.m. Lunch with Mom at school, she was the biggest kid in the lunchroom!

2:45 p.m. Home from school! Time to play new TMNT game for the Wii!

5:30 p.m. Dad's home, time to open presents ...

5:45 p.m. New presents include: Reindeer Webkin & Target giftcard from Grandpa & Grandma Peterson & Tyra, new scooter with helmet & pads, Cube World man to add to collection, Scrabble Jr., Blackbear Webkin from Grandpa & Grandma Livingstone, and lots of treats from Micki & Spencer, yummy!

6:00 p.m. Dinner at Chuck E. Cheese with Spencer and Micki, lots of fun!!

8:00 p.m. Grandpa & Grandma Livingstone come for cake and ice cream

9:30 p.m. Bed time, what a great day!

I looked out the window and what did I see? Pt. 2

The first picture is the taken through my window, the rest off my back porch. It is so close! Yipee!!

So, here are pictures of our finished park. It is WONDERFUL!! They just barely finished putting in the wood chips on Friday so we haven't had a lot of time to spend there yet-- but I'm sure it won't take long before we are regular users. It's fun to see all the moms and kids congregate there around 4:00 p.m. each day. I'm hoping we'll be able to make some friends by frequenting this park and aren't we lucky that it's right outside our back door?!! Josie already looks out the windows and says, "Side" (outside or slide, haven't figured it out yet). So, invitations to all to come and play!!

Curly lox ...

We took these pictures of Maggie before church last week. We put rollers in her hair after her bath the night before and we were all surprised at how well the curls turned out! I was afraid that she wouldn't like sleeping in them so I used what I've heard my Mom say before, "it's like sleeping on lots of little pillows", and it worked! We used the rollers again this past week and before bed she said, "how many little pillows do I have on my head?" It sure turned out cute! Grandpa Livingstone thought she looked just like Annie, and we also heard she looked like Shirley Temple. She's happy because it sure beats curling her hair with a curling iron every day! (If you're wondering why Johnny is sucking his fingers, he's copying Josie, don't worry, it's not a regular habit-- thank goodness! He's just trying to be silly!)

Christmas already??

One of the things I missed while living in Tucson last year was waking up the day after Halloween to Christmas music. This morning I turned on my radio with anticipation, and there it was -- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen! Now I'm ready for the snow, my Christmas tree, and all the birthdays inbetween!

Halloween 2007

We had a happy Halloween this year. It was almost as exciting as Christmas getting to trick-or-treat in our own neighborhood full of kids, meeting our neighbors, and the weather was wonderful! John laughed when I asked him if we should take a picture of our first trick-or-treaters EVER; I was joking, but it was all very exciting for me! Josie finally got the hang of walking up to the door, she would put her basket down to knock, and then she would say "treat" and try to eat them as fast as she got them. I think she got extra goodies for being so cute because her basket was just as full as the other kids' and she didn't go up to all the doors like they did. It was great to have street lights and more kids than I've ever seen outside. We even found one of Johnny's classmates that lives down our street so he's a little more motivated to learn to ride his bike so he can ride down to play with his friend. Today at school Johnny had a field trip to Thanksgiving Point, Maggie had a parade and party, and Josie and I made cookies. For dinner, courtesy of Papa Murphey's, we had a jack-o-lantern pizza and orange chocolate chip cookies, it was a Halloween to remember and we'll look forward for many more to come!

Pumpkin Carving 2007

We have a tradition in John's family to spend the Monday before Halloween eating soup and rolls and then carving pumpkins together. We end up with a lot of great food and a lot of great looking pumpkins! We are so glad to be back in Utah because we missed all the family traditions and holidays with everyone last year. We missed everyone that wasn't there, we're excited to see everyone at Christmas!

Halloween Countdown ...

For Halloween this year Johnny wanted to be Optimus Prime, but the costume was $30 and I didn't want to spend that much, nor did I know at the time who Optimus Prime was (transformer), so I told him I'd pay him $8 to be a Star Wars Jedi and use his costume from last year. Easy deal, he'll do anything for money. Maggie wanted to be a cheerleader and I pondered the best way to make that happen. I looked at patterns to sew a costume, looked at all the lame cheerleader costumes in the store, and came up short in both areas. Thankfully, Grandma Livingstone saved the day. She is an amazing sewer and just whipped her costume right up and it turned out perfect! My mom bought Josie the cutest piggie costume that she just loves. Josie loved piggies and it couldn't have been more cute, she makes her little piggie sound when I show it to her.

It seems like the week or so before Halloween there are always all kinds of different activities going on where the kids get to dress up in their costumes and lots of candy is involved. The first activity was a party that my parents' ward in Idaho had. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time, played lots of fun games and were pleased to have Grandma & Grandpa take them and show them off a bit!









We always have a fun time in Idaho. The kids played outside ALL day and didn't mind the cold at all! We spent lots of time with my brother and his wife which was really great and my Dad always makes my favorites to eat! We're looking forward to spending more time there for the holidays!

What Happens in Vegas ....

We had such a fun weekend spent in Las Vegas. We stayed one night on the strip at the Treasure Island Hotel. We shopped a lot and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We spent the next couple of days with Reecy and Eric and we had a lot of fun together. The boys had a great time golfing together, we did some crafts and some shopping while they golfed. The night before we left we ate at the Rio buffet, it was amazing. We got our money's worth for all the food we ate! We had a great time visiting Eric and Reecy, their house is so nice and I'm so impressed with they way they've jumped in to life in Vegas. They have done some really fun things, made great friends, learned their way around, and I think they're having a really great time. We're glad that they're there so we can go visit. Blake was so cute, we had great conversations with him, it's hard to believe that he's only two years old! Thanks to Mom Livingstone for watching our kids for us, it was great to not worry one second for them. In fact they were sad that we weren't gone for longer!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

I feel so grateful for choosing to move into the house that we did, especially when after only being here for about a month I started seeing tractors and workers outside our kitchen window, adjacent to our property line behind our house. So here are pictures of the almost finished product. I am really looking forward to it getting finished, hopefully before it snows and gets too cold to use it. They still need to sod and fill the play area with woodchips and who knows what else they'll do. But we're grateful to be able to walk a few steps out of our house and be able to play at the park and ride bikes along the paved path. I also love that my kitchen area is filled with big windows so I can see right to the park! Come and play!!

Scarecrow Festival

We had such a fun week with Tyra visiting us all week while my parents were able to vacation in Cancun. We did so many fun activities together and on Friday we were able to go to the annual Scarecrow Festival held in Lehi. It was such a fun time! The kids had a great time and it really felt like Fall. There were many great activities, lots of games, fun things to see, bounce houses, a botique, and great food. We're looking forward to attending again next year!

Wii having some fun!

We bought a new game for our Nintendo Wii this weekend called Carnival. The kids had a great time playing it, and it looked so fun that Josie wanted to join in the fun too!

I've been TAGGED!

So my wonderful friend, Mauri, tagged me! I usually skip these things over and never respond, but I enjoy reading everyone else's so I figured I'd be a good sport.

What I was doing ten years ago: Ten years ago I was a just getting the swing of good ol’ Ricks College (Now BYU-I) … am I old? I had met my future husband because we were in the same ward and FHE group, yes the program works! And I was loving everything about life in Rexburg, except my job in the Cafeteria’s kitchen. It was a great time of life and I was extremely happy with the path my life was on.

What I was doing five years ago: Five years ago John had just started his first year in BYU’s Clinical Psychology program. We were currently living in a little 4-plex near BYU and we lived around the corner from our bro. and sis.-in-law, Micki & Spencer. We made some of the greatest friends we ever knew while living there in that little apartment. Johnny was almost two years old and I was 6 ½ months into my stressful pregnancy with Maggie. She had her cord wrapped so tightly around her neck that they were worried about her oxygen supply, so I spent weekly visits to the hospital for tests to make sure she was alive and doing okay. The end of Sept. also brought with it an exciting time because at the beginning of October my brother was coming home from serving his mission in Africa and we had missed him greatly!

One Year Ago: One year ago we were living in Tucson, Arizona, which now seems just like a memory. The kids were in swimming lessons and it was still 100 degrees outside. We were making lots of friends from our ward and Maggie and Johnny were both going to school and involved in other activities that kept us busy. We were also looking forward to a trip to Disneyland that we took the beginning of October. I was very homesick and we were spending our vacation with my parents, so I, like the kids, was counting down the days! I was also working one night a week at the Gap in the mall and really enjoyed my time there and made a couple of really good friends and enjoying the discount.

Yesterday: Yesterday was Monday and I was thrown quickly back into the swing of things from the weekend! I woke up at a little before 6 a.m. to work out, got Johnny ready for school so he could walk out the door by 7:30, showered and got Maggie ready to walk out the door by 9:15. After dropping her off at school I ran some errands, picked her back up, vacuumed the car, went home to get ready for Mom Livingstone to come play with Maggie and Josie while I went and read to Johnny’s first grade class. Got home from the school, took Maggie to play over at a friend’s house and then worked on laundry, cleaning catch-up from the morning, put together an FHE lesson, and made dinner. Sounds like a lot, but at night I usually crash!

5 snacks I enjoy: I enjoy all snacks, but mostly I don’t eat snacks, I eat treats. Treats include anything I really shouldn’t be eating-- such as: I can down a whole bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos in one sitting, I love most any food combination that includes chocolate and peanut butter, Diet Coke (couldn’t live without it), Krispy Kreme, and cheesecake from A.J.’s, my favorite “treat” place in Tucson ( I have yet to find anything to replace it with).

Five things I would do if I had $100 Million: If I had $100 Million I would pay off student loans, build my dream house, go on luxurious vacations, take an amazing shopping spree including new cars, save for the kids’ college & retirement, and share with friends and family.

Five places I would love to run away to: Right now I would love to run away to anywhere that doesn’t include doing dishes, laundry, making meals, carpooling, and kids (love ‘em, but need a break). So, there are 5 things I’d love to run away from and I’d go pretty much anywhere where there is sun, sand, and a beach!

Five TV shows I like: The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, 24, Lost, & right now I’m ashamed to admit, Dancing with the Stars.

Five things I hate doing: I hate doing laundry, making dinner, straightening my hair when it’s too long, migraines, & working when I’d rather be home with my family.

Five biggest joys of the moment: Josie’s “babbling”, having my back in good shape, Halloween treats in the stores, fall season in Utah County (Provo), & my good, beautiful kids.

I now have to tag five (or so) people: Melissa Peterson, Allison Harris, Kendra Anderson, Honey Hunt, Charisse Allen, & Lexie Matson.

She loves to twirl!

I still refer to Josie as "the baby" to the kids, or "my baby" to other people-- but I'm quickly realizing she's not a baby anymore! She loves music and loves to dance! One of her favorite things is the 12 Dancing Princesses dance mat that Maggie got for Christmas last year from her Grandma Peterson. Josie knows how to drag it out onto the floor, make sure it doesn't have any wrinkles, and turn on the music. She twirls and sings and dances around it-- it is so fun to watch! So here is my baby not being a baby anymore, but growing up into 110% girl!

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Star of the Week

Johnny is the star of the week in his class at school. We got to decorate this fun poster for him and today I got to go read one of his favorite stories to his class. We read: Purple, Green, and Yellow by Robert Munsch. It is one of our favorites, we laugh every time we read it and his class loved it too! We love Johnny and he is a star every day in our house!

Primary Program Sunday

Last year the kids missed their primary program because we were on vacation at Disneyland-- the kids quickly forgot what they were missing!

This year was really exciting and we were lucky to have Grandma Livingstone come to church with us to see them. Josie was especially excited to have someone else to sit by during Sacrament Meeting. Our new ward is so big, both Johnny and Maggie have split classes, where in our ward in Tucson last year they had many combined classes! We got some cute pictures of the kids before church on Sunday, it's too bad that a camera wouldn't have been appropriate for the program, the kids were wonderful!

Friday Fall Fun at Micki's

We are so glad to be back in Utah and especially so glad to be living so close to Micki and Spencer, who are our dearest friends and we're just so lucky that they're also family. On Friday night Micki was feeling "fall-ish" and so after dinner and playing at their park we went back to their house and made and decorated sugar cookies for fall and ate baby carmel apples. It was so much fun and such a yummy treat! We got some fun pictures of the kids helping.

Maggie had to wear a special apron of Micki's so she could look just like her!




Josie ended up falling off of the kitchen chair and knew right where to go for the sympathy she needed!