So Lucky!

I am the luckiest mom ever, need I say more?

Hanging with My Sis and Her Fam

My sister Susan and her husband Aaron came out to Salt Lake to check up on her Mother-in-law who hasn't been feeling well lately. During the first part of the week I took our boys down to Salt Lake to see them there, and then we lucked out because at the end of their stay they came up to Idaho to see Aaron's brother Don and then to stay with us!

This is my neice Madeline, (A.K.A Missy). Isn't she cute? She is such a sassy one, but despite what her mom says and what I hear over the phone, I thought she was rather polite. My favorite thing she did while we were in Salt Lake at my mom's house was to tell me how dirty my van is. I know it needs vaccuumed and the windows are shameful, but at least I don't have trash and yesterdays lunch all over! From the expression on her face you would have thought I'd asked her to bask in a bucket of slime instead of to please sit in the back in her carseat. I should have her dad detail my van the way he does theirs. Now that would be driving in style!
Here are Sue & Aaron's 3 oldest, and mine and Kelby's kiddos all together. What better way to spend the day than with your cousins? It was nice to have snow for their kids since they live in San Antonio now and can only get it when visiting family.

I'm so glad I got to visit with my sister Sue. The last time I was in the same room with her was in the ICU at Univeristy Hospitals in Cleveland, OH. I didn't even get to really see her, I just heard her voice and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why I could hear Kelby and Sue talking to each other when I knew full well that Sue was in Texas. Turns out I was tied into an ICU bed and she had flown out to see her poor sister just in case she didn't make it. So as you can tell I made it and I am so grateful I had this opportunity to see her again and to be alive while doing it. Kind of an emotional meeting for me. Love you Sue! Of course, we have no pictures of us, but doesn't the one of our kids count?

Our Post Christmas Pilgrimage to Grandma Olson's

Our New Years visit to Grandma Olson's was a fun one. Kelby's brother Brock and fam came to visit from Boston where Brock is in dental school. Most of us went skiing/snowboarding to Pomerelle while we were all there together. Ron, Tysi, and their entire fam, Chad, Fran, and Nathan, Brock and Kris, Jill, and Kelby, me and Taylor. What a group!

This was mine and Taylor's first ever ski trip. We rocked the mountain as well as any beginners can. Kelby and I went again a few days later and took advantage of the built in grandma babysitter. What a fun family activity! Next year Kelby will teach Ian and we'll be kick'n up powder all over the place. Taylor was mad that Kelby wouldn't allow him to go over the ski jumps his first time out. I'd say he likes skiing. I wish we had pictures!

What cute kiddos! This is the first time Ian and Taylee played together without fighting every other second. Seriously, they are bad. Here they are playing, "boat." It's hard to tell by what they are wearing, but Taylee is a mermaid, Ian is a pirate, and all the stuff in the boat is their treasure. They played happily for over an hour until they were bombarded by older cousins.

Ian and Taylee are about 2 weeks apart, but they were due just a day apart. Not that I am bitter or anything, but I just want to mention that Taylee came a week early, and Ian came a week late. Anyway, back to this picture, they just stood like this forever while everyone took pictures. Who knew they could get along for so long without squabbling?

All the boy cousins standing for their annual post Christmas picture wearing the shirts Grandma Olson bought for them.

All my sleepy boys. I stayed up late and watched a movie, and this is what I found when I went to bed. I was too tired to move the boys out so I grabbed a blanket and slept on the couch. I love my boys!

This year for Christmas we had Kyler, and we got him new ties. I guess you can't be to creative when you are buying for a missionary, and he does like ties afterall. We bought Kelby's mom a new faucet since hers leaks all the time, but Brock and Kris got together with Chad and Fran, and did the very same thing. We took ours back to the store and we bought her new pants and a gift card to Maurices clothing store instead. We hope she liked it!

Kyler had us at Christmas too, and vicariously through his mom he bought us the UNO game and airplanes for the boys along with a movie we wanted. Nada got Kelby a nice ladder, a stereo that will play my ipod for me, and for the boys, (and all the rest of the cousins), she bought a wii that stays at her house and they can play it when they visit. The boys love it!

Old Cleveland Chums, (But not that old)

Ian went to bed on occasion crying that he lost his friends so I facebooked the Whites and asked if we could visit next time we were in WJ visiting my parents. It took a couple of minutes for the kids to warm up to each other again, but once they forgot their shyness they were out of control silly. We are so glad we stopped by!

*Yes Taylor is still in love with Kyla and plans to marry her, but there are some new girls in his life too which is good since Kyla has a new man chasing after her. Ah the love of kindergarteners

While the Popes were Rexburg we met up with them for an adult only dinner at Big Judds. It was nice to see some familiar faces! And Miriam is still my fave VT Companion, but I guess it is now an x-companion situation.

Okay, so the name should really be Super sized Judds. Miriam ate one of these 1lb hamburgers all to herself. Not really, but wouldn't that be awesome if she could?

On December 26th we met up with the Claytons at Cafe Rio. My first stint so Brooke had to show me the ropes. We'll be back. I had a salad that could have served 4 people. I miss my running partner! So good to meet up with you guys.

We also met up with our favorite neighbors, the Thompsons who are not Clevelanders, but post Oremites. I even remembered the camera, but I forgot to take a pic with them. I am using the excuse that the waitresses wanted us out so bad that they stressed me out to the point where I just couldn't think straight. Lame, but my excuse anyway. We miss you guys!

*Christmas 2009*

Christmas started out early with Ian waking up first, (anybody surprised? You shouldn't be). Ian came in to cuddle early morning and I convinced him to go and see if Santa had come. When he went out he found Optimus Prime and was so excited! He brought it in to show me, but he had Taylor's so I sent him back to find his own Optimus under the tree. After discovering his own he took Taylor's into his room to wake his brother and show him what he got. Taylor woke up and saw Optimus in Ian's hands and struck and fist with all the enthusiasm in the world said, "Yes!" I guess we, I mean Santa, did alright this year.

While unwrapping gifts Ian kept saying that he needed to find BumbleBee. Well, his parents pulled through and after torturing him with some not so fun gifts, (clothes and sheets), we let him open his bumblebee transformer. I dare you to try and play with this while he is around!

A bit bleary eyed, but his willingness to open gifts may be unmatched!
Yay! Letter "E", (Kelby's secretary Laree), gave me Lightening McQueen stuff! And Taylor too.

It wouldn't be Christmas if Santa didn't bring more GeoTrax stuff. This time it was an airplane for Ian, more specifically, Loopy Loco. It will connect to Taylor's airplane track and this airplane will glide through the barn door upside down.

New shirts and pants. Thanks Old Navy!

After opening gifts at home we raced off to Salt Lake to hang with my fam and have Christmas Dinner. Grandma and Grandpa pulled through with small farm toys for the boys, new towels* for all of us, the family edition of the Book of Mormon, the Settlers of Catan extension set**, and a puzzle for me. Holy cow Mom and Dad! What alot of stuff! Thanks!

We got them a record player that plays the records and uploads them to your computer so you can burn CDs. I think they actually liked it. They are so hard to shop for!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

*Have you ever exfoliated every time you dried off? We have and that is why we asked for new towels. No need to lose your skin nowd!

**The extention set was by default. My mom got it for Mari originally, but Mari already had it and as my mom didn't want to return it she gave it to us. Thanks Mari for already having something we wanted!

Getting Ready For Santa Claus Christmas Eve

Taylor insisted that we make cookies for Santa this year. He was to excited that night to notice that we forgot to put them out. Oh well. They were well received at my parents house. While I made the cookies Kelby took the boys down the street so they could get some sledding in. We wanted to build a snowman instead, but the snow wasn't sticking together. Talk about having to be flexible with your plans.

Of course every year we have the traditional Christmas Eve new pajamas from mom and dad. This year Optimus Prime dominated the scene and the boys loved it. We each got new slippers, but does anybody care? No. Why? Because we aren't as cute as the boys and our slippers weren't Optimus Prime themed. Lame.

During the month of December we had the boys earning money so they could get each other a gift to open on Christmas Eve. We loved Taylor's wrapped gift to Ian so much we took a picture of it. Taylor bought Ian a Car's police car and a mini jet plane. Ian chose an autobot helicopter transformer for Taylor, which just so happened to be Taylor's favorite gift this year.

This is the fun part. Everybody got a dart gun and boy was I ever surprised when I opened mine. Okay, not really since I wrapped them all, and I bought them too. We were aiming at each other until I shot Kelby in the eye and Taylor shot me in the face. Kelby then banned us from shooting each other. How boring is that? Then we discovered the pics of ourselves on the wall, what a brilliant idea! The one on Taylor's forhead was shot by me and I am still proud of it, (and probably will be forever). Every so often when we want to kill each other we just shoot the family photos on the wall. Much less violent if you ask me.

Happy Sixth Taylor!

Taylor turns six today! A full blown kindergartener already this kid is growing faster than we imagined!
We let Taylor open presents after chuch since the anticipation was killing him. A helicopter, new pjs, and police car from mom and dad, a puzzle and 4 new movies from Grandma Western, a camera from Grandma Olson, (which he got later), and a birthday card from Great Grandma Tingey. Whew, what a successful birthday and Christmas is just around the corner.

Oh what awesome parents! We got the coveted helicopter from Kohls. I think this toy has lived nine lives already.

Every year Taylor wants a train cake and every year I hate making it. Since this cake didn't turn out obscene like the one last year I did allow it to be photographed. The cone is supposed to be a smoke stack. I got the idea from a website, don't ask me which one because I don't know. Google it if you must. It looks like a train and you like it. Taylor did.

By the way, nobody in our house likes cake which makes it really hard to even want to make the thing. We eat it once and then we chuck it after it starts to grow things. What a waste. I wish he would let me make an ice cream cake!

Of course Ian had to help blow out the candles. Happy Birthday Taylor! We love you.