Tis the Season...

For:

Stockings

The Tree

("It's not going in our yard, Russ, it's going in our living room!") The perfect statement! We love our BIG tree!

and the Big Guy!

My Five:

1. Medicine! All four of us are sick. AAAGGGHHH!

2. The dishwasher

3. On-line shopping

4. Hair straighteners

5. Christmas stories

Taking a moment!

I can't help taking a picture of Emma when we straighten her hair. Plus, she had on her favorite overalls (she would wear them every single day if I'd let her...) and her fun leg/arm warmers. These are such a good idea, especially since the girl still loves wearing her short sleeve shirts and skirts! She did not get that from me, that's for sure. Wrap in up in a sweater any day!!
I kept wondering why she wasn't giving me a big cheesy smile, and it was because she had a mouth full of gummies. I should have known!

And of course my little buba's!

I know that I may have a slightly biased opinion, but I feel so blessed to have the sweetest, best kids. Tal is so innocent and full of life, so excited to learn and do. He makes my entire insides shine when he smiles at me. Emma is kindness and love down to her core. To watch her interact with her friends at school, makes my heart swell with joy. She lives to please her daddy, and listen to  her primary songs as loud as she can on her CD player.

I could have never imagined the kind of love I could have for another person, until I met Matt. And adding Emma and Tal has given me a glimpse of what our Father in Heaven's love for us really is. I love being a mother. It is the hardest thing I've ever done, and would never trade it. I'm so thankful for this life!  

Let's Eat!!

We had our first snow already this last weekend. Emma was beside herself excited! The first thing she asked was if she could go out and eat it. I caught her outside on the deck eating the snow in her church dress on Sunday, and on Monday she got herself into her snowsuit and had a healthy breakfast of snow!! And throughout the day I kept feeling drafts of very cold air due to the open door out to the deck... I wonder why!

What a stinker!

Tal prefers something warm and indoors!!! He gets so excited for every bite!!

My Five:

1. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. He gave us many wonderful and insightful glimpses of his eternal testimony of the gospel.

2. Black Friday... you know you love it to!!

3. A loving, hard working husband! He does do much for us.

4. My mom and sister. I just love them!

5. Warm sweaters... it's been really cold here. Brrrr!

Give Thanks!

Don't you love this time of year! It's wonderful to take the time to celebrate the things we've been so blessed to receive. I find myself at times taking for granted the little things, and I'm reminded of the scripture story of the 10 lepers: "Were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the 9?" Let's not fall into such forgetfulness as the 9, and thank our Father in Heaven for all He so freely and willing provides.

Emma's little class had a Thanksgiving feast. Such cute little pilgrims and indians they were!

Emma, Elsie, and Shelby (of course the cupcakes and the chocolate covered pretzels were eaten before the cute little turkey sandwiches I brought! Can't say I blame them!)

And we had a very 'full' Thanksgiving Day spending it with Matt's parents and his Aunt Dita who so bravely invited us to use her home. These are the cute table decorations Emma and Grandma made for everyone!

Ginger Bread House

This is such a special tradition. When Matt and his brother were growing up, their mom would make them each a ginger bread house to decorate (Matt always gave his to his teacher at school. Ah, what a sweet boy!). And now she's carrying it on with Emma. We feel very lucky! They are such beautiful houses (and they smell so yummy!). It's quite a time consuming project, but, oh, so worth it. 

Matt's mom invited Emma and a couple of her friends to join in the festivities and sugar rush. The kids loved it, more for the candy at times, but each house couldn't have been cuter! Such a fun day.

Before

"One for the house... one for me..."

After

Arwin, Alaura, Emma and Cooper

The windows are crushed-up, melted Jolly Ranchers. There is also a light on the inside, so when you plug it in it lights up the windows. I know, I know... too cute, right!

Beauty Shop and Gator!

Emma loves to play with Tal, and not surprisingly, Tal loves Emma!!! So she always begs me to let her watch him. So I gave in and let Tal play with Emma in her room while I did the dishes. I kept hearing Emma's cute little giggle and Tal's squeals of delight, so I assumed all was well. When I finished I went in to join in the fun. But as I walked in I realized I was going to make an appointment, because I had walked into "Emma's Beauty Salon!"

She was having such a great time. Tal was soaked, but still thinking whatever Emma was doing was pretty funny!

The finished product! What do you think? She's got talent, huh. What an imagination this little girl has! I love it! Hey, Slick!

Gator

Tal is such a funny guy. He LOVES his big sis, and he also LOVES his gator.  If Emma's not around, Gator can always put a smile on his face. Such a silly boy!

Love this kid!!
My Five:

1. Thanksgiving Dinner... tis the season!!

2. De-Junking... I really do have a love for it. Makes me wonder why I wait so long in between sessions :)....!

3. My car. What would I do... seriously?!

4. Shopping alone. I forget how much you can get done in just 2 hours. It's really kind of amazing. 

5. An afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Coleman... which provided me with my very productive 2 hours. Thanks!

Picture Tag!

K- I'm it! Here's how it goes: Picture Tag- find the 4th picture in your 4th folder, then tag 4 people.

So this was a great trip... not the greatest picture of the trip (our flight left REALLY early in the morning...), but nonetheless. When Matt and I were at Snow College, I worked for Pres. Benson and somehow got put in charge of organizing a slightly large project. The football team had qualified for a bowl game in Georgia, so my boss, Marci, and I had to make it happen. We chartered a plane for about 140 people (players, coaches, cheerleaders, and others)-you can see the planes wing in the pic-, reserved hotel rooms, planned dinners, bought tickets, kept Cheerleaders out of trouble (really!??!), provided transportation, and worried for 3 months hoping we didn't miss anything.... ppphhhheeeeww! It was a project, but oh so fabulous. We had a really fun time, and the football team won, so we didn't go through all of that work for nothing!

I tag: Kim B, Mikelle S, Lacey I, and Lacie K!

My Five:

1. Winter hats

2. The clearance rack at Target!!

3. Early Christmas shopping

4. Mineral Powder Foundation. I kid you not, this is the BEST stuff ever invented. I use the Mary Kay brand. LOVE it!

5. Pasta!!!

Halloween 2008!

We had a really fun Halloween filled a pirate, a ballerina ghost, and candy, candy and more candy!

Tal made the GREATEST pirate! Along with his parrot he was ready to set sail and find people to walk the plank! AARRRRRGGG!

I bet you've never seen a ballerina ghost, have you!?! Well if you've ever wondered what one looks like here she is:

Gone are the days of me deciding what she'll be. And when she told me that she wanted to be a ballerina ghost my first thought was "OH, I'm pretty sure I can't buy one of those in the store!!" Well, after much thought this is what we came up with, and I think it worked!!

Trunk-or-Treat

It's been a tradition in our ward at church that we have a trunk-or-treat the weekend before Halloween! I love seeing little kids in their costumes! I think it's so fun! After some yummy chilli, games, and a parade of all the little "spooks" it was out to the cars to pass out the much anticipated candy! This is always a hit and the kids love to see their friends all dressed up!

Emma leading all her spooky friends in the parade for the parents!

Emma and Abree the witch!!

Hey there, matie!

Pumpkin Painting

To get our own door step ready for the big night, Emma was excited to paint her pumpkins instead of watching me carve them!! Plus, it was such a gorgeous day here (75 degrees with a little breeze.... yuuuummmy!!!) it was a fun thing to do so we could enjoy it and be outside!!

LOVELY!! Emma worked so hard that she "needed" a popsicle! The great thing was is that it was warm enough to give her one!!

Halloween night was just perfect at 73 degrees! I don't ever remember a time when my brothers, and sister and I didn't have a coat over our costumes so you couldn't even tell what we were!! But we still had the trick-or-treating experience, right!!! 

The weather here has be fabulous!!! I really love the fall. Everything about it is great... except that it brings us closer to the cold and snow and the "staying inside all day!"

My Five

1. Political Phone calls!!! NOT

2. Merb's Bionic Apple! This is by far the most delicious caramel apple I've ever had.

3. Halloween decorations

4. Good friends. I feel very blessed to have such thoughtful people that I can call friends!

5. Body by Janie! A few of you will know what I'm talking about. Ouch!!! But thanks!

My Five!

This is a wonderful idea. I saw this on a good friend of mine's blog (Hi Amanda, hope you don't mind if I copy...!!!) and I thought why haven't I thought of this before! I've been blessed with SO much, but it's easy at the end of the day to think of all that didn't go just right. SO starting now at the end of each of my posts I'm going to list "My Five." 

My Five:

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints... because it's true. I've had many instances in the last while to share that with people, and it feels so good!  

2. Fire wood! I LOVE to lay in front a popping fire and just toast!!!

3. A wonderful husband who builds the BEST fires and makes the BEST hot chocolate!

4. Loving kids who know just what to do to make me smile... or cry!

5. Birthday's!!!! Because today is mine!

Especially now when we are experiencing such uncertainty, we all need a little "pick-me-up" each day, right!!!

Boots the Dog...!

Some of you may have had the privilege of knowing my family's dog, Boots... what a character. He really would never hurt a flea, although as he grew older, Boots had to prove that he wasn't a softy! You know the phrase "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" well that didn't apply to Boots, not even a little bit. Not only did he learn new tricks... many, many new tricks (and he's like 15 years old)... he became more crafty with each one. For instance:

• Boots is the only dog that has ever escaped from the dog pound in Fillmore... and he did it 3 times!
  
• He could somehow wriggle his way out of a full body harness (to this day we can't imagine how), so a leash around his collar was out of the question!
• Leashes and harnesses were easy for Boots. Nothing could contain this dog. Not even a dog house inside a completely inclosed area. First, he would climb on top of the dog house and somehow knock the chin-link fence from the roof just enough to get through. So with a HUGE pice of ply-wood on top to prevent that, he would wiggle out of a 8 inch hole that he furiously and diligently dug. I swear! The garage was the only place he couldn't conquer. Poor dog!
• Although afraid of lightening and thunder, a stampede of the neighbors angry horses only made him smile!
• He memorized my parents work schedule. He knew when they would leave in the morning for the office (my dad's a dentist and my mom runs things!!). So he would leave 5 mins. before they did so he could beat them there. He even knew that Thursday's was their day off... seriously, cause he'd stay home instead of trying to beat them to work.
• While he was at the office he was nothing but a pest. Chasing cars and barking at dogs in the back of pick-ups. (if this is how you know Boots, I'm really sorry).
• If that wasn't enough, he started terrorizing my parent's neighborhood. Eating people's dinner... before they did, ripping off the next door neighbor's truck fender...twice, and chasing the neighbor's horses and sheep just to name a few!

My parents can't figure out way he'd do these crazy things. I guess it all kind of started when we all  started leaving home. But the other day Boots' days of tricks came to an unfortunate end. He lived a completely full and busy life for a dog. He went on many hunting excursions, camp-outs, and trips to the farm (his favorite)! And now I'm sure he's re-chasing all of those turkey's and squirrel's that he'd already gotten before!! ;)

You'll be missed ol' Boots... by your family at least!!

Emma... our little princess!

If you have a daughter, you have a princess! Emma is becoming such a sweet girl. She loves making new friends no matter who they are. She's quite the ballerina as well twirling and leaping with every step (time for dance lessons I guess).

I asked Emma to "help daddy" get ready for church the other day and it looked like she did a pretty good job!

Bike rides are always longer then you expect. She takes time to look at and appreciate just about every rock and bug and flower (or weed... it all depends on how you look at it). Lately she quite enjoys  the dirt that ended up on the trail after the creek flooded over. She writes her name everywhere and thought way not the sidewalk too!

And believe it or not she really LOVES bed time. And who wouldn't if you had the crew she has to look forward to once she climbs in bed. In order (and it HAS to be in  order): Toby, the green hippo; Buddy, and brown and white puppy; Bunny, the pink bunny; Tony, the black and white tiger; and Pup, the tan and brown puppy, who sleeps on the pillow next to her. Sweet dreams!!!
She is a wonderful big sister and friend. We are so proud or our Emma Bear!

Tal... our little man!

Tal is so fun! He is a rolly-polly now that he's figured out now that rolling over really isn't so bad (he REALLY hated doing it up until now...). 

His favorite thing is his "play seat." The little seat turns so he can enjoy all the colorful creativity! 

He always stops at the mirror though and as you can see he really likes the person looking back at him!!!

He LOVES to be outside and go on walks with Emma.

And he ADORES his big sis. When she is in the room he has all eyes on her. His biggest smiles are always for Emma!! I'm so blessed to be their mother.