Live, Laugh, Love

10 years ago today we were getting sealed in the Salt Lake Temple for time and all eternity. It's still so fresh in my mind, that I can't believe it's been that long. But looking back at all that's happened, it seems like forever.

In 10 years we've:

Had 3 kids
Lived in 3 (almost 4) homes, and 1 icky apartment.
Owned 8 vehicles.
Finished 2 basements.
Been to Yellowstone 8 times.
Gained 10 Nieces.
Gained 5 Nephews (Carter was already born when we married.)
Gained 50 pounds.
Been through marriage counseling twice.
Grown closer together.
Enjoyed having our soul mate to grow old with.

Sniff sniff.

The Christmas spoils

I hope everyone out there in blogosphere had a good Christmas. I know we did. Here are the pictures and blurbs of what the Holiday season brought. The girls with their huge Disney Princess dolls. Of course Maggie got Belle. Emma got Cinderella.


Emma with her Pixel Chix, and Maggie with her MagnaDoodle book.



Of course HSM 2 found it's way to our house. The girls think it's pretty cool that I went to college where they filmed the movie. What can I say? I'm just cool like that.


And somehow Santa found a WII on eBay, and sent it our way. We played it all night Christmas night, and I have the sore shoulder to show for it.


Maggie's little piano. Gretta got one just like it. Maybe now they'll leave mine alone.



Now for the run down.


Christmas eve:
Dinner at Sizzler. My parents go there so often, their server invited them to her wedding, and also gave them a $25 Gift Certificate. Should I brag about that?
Huge snowstorm. The drive home from Sizzler was fun. The vangina rocks in the snow.
Played play dough pictionary at Grandma's house. Green dough makes for interesting sculptures.

Christmas Morning:
Woke up at 5 AM.
Gretta starts puking.
Open presents til 7.
Gretta continues puking.
Breakfast at Nunn and Poppa's at 9.
Open more presents.
Gretta pukes.
Play a wicked game of Cranium. It was Sylvester, Kelli. ;)
Went to Grandma's for lunch.
Opened more presents.
Played another game of Cranium, Clayton style.
Leave in a hurry due to mystery smell.
Play WII all night.

Day after Christmas:
Kids woke up early to play WII
Gretta still puking.
Mom takes shower, finally!
Gretta has a seizure.
Head to Primary's for 2 days.

Yesterday:
Home. Finally.
Gretta back to normal.
Kids playing with WII all day.
Mom not feeling too hot.
Sean's last day of work in Utah.
Looking forward to having him home for 2 weeks.

I think that's all. Sorry about the absence of blogging. I promise I'll be better.

Home for the Holidays

We had some nice visitors on Thursday night. Jacob and Amy called, and were on their way to Texas to see Betsy, and needed a place to crash for the night. Of course we welcomed them with open arms. And an open front door. Since we were away at a work party, we just left our house unlocked, and they came right in and made themselves right at home. I'm glad they did. We didn't arrive home until much later than we expected, so they had a dinner of pancakes, and then took baths before we even got here! Of course we were all up late talking and playing. The kids had so much fun. They love playing with cousins.

Cruz, Kirsten and Maggie playing "Little People" on the landing. Cruz is a sport to put up with all that girl stuff around.

Katanya enjoying a breakfast of Cookie Crisp and orange juice. She bonked her face on the coffee table pretty hard, cut her tongue, and hardly even cried! She's a trooper.

Emma and McKay watching cartoons. Emma looks sleepy, and probably was, but I think I just caught her with her eyes closed. Oops.

My new favorite reality show.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about this show that makes me laugh so hard. Maybe it's the fact that Snoop is freakin' hilare, or the fact that he hangs out in his backyard shed all day eating fried chicken. Or maybe it's that his wife is about as exciting as a wet noodle, but their 8 year old could put you in your place with just one look. Either way, Sean and I sat and laughed our heads off for a good hour last night, all thanks to Snoop and his Dawg Pound. As he would say in his "Word of the day" segment, "It's all Hood".

A little info

My minivan just turned 60000 miles. This is the most miles I've ever had on a vehicle. And this is also the longest I've ever owned one vehicle. I'd like to buy another, but a car payment just doesn't sound fun. I enjoy having extra money for Wal-Mart.

But it makes me wonder...What kind of cars do my reader(s) drive? I'll start.

03 Honda Odyssey
05 Dodge Ram (Git 'er dun!)


Now you.

It's about freakin' time!

We have toothage. And not a minute to soon!

At 11 months, I was starting to wonder if she would be getting her drivers license picture taken with no teeth! I'd post a pic, but baby isn't very forthcoming with her new pearly.

Fine, thanks. How was your morning?

This morning I awoke to two things.

1. I had a nose bleed. Some people have cowlicks or widows' peaks that run in their families, but we have nose bleeds. Aren't we lucky? Yes, we are. So at 4:30 AM, I wake up to that icky taste in my mouth. I hate that. So half-coherent, I'm staggering to the bathroom to take care of this mess. And even luckier, it wouldn't stop. So for a half an hour I sat on the edge of the bath tub and half slept, half gagged.

2. Finally, it stopped. 5:15, I just drift off to sleep, and find myself startled awake by the sound of my dog whining. She never whines. Unless... Yep, she pees on the carpet. The newly cleaned carpets, mind you. Now my mouth tastes like blood and toilet paper, and my house smells like dog pee. Great morning.

But I got to go to lunch with Sugar Daddy, and brave Wal-Mart for a few last minute gifts, so my day improved drastically. I certainly don't think it could have gotten worse.

Does this make us SITCOM'S?

I heard once that yuppies no longer exist. Now they're called SITCOM's.

Single
Income
Two (or Three)
Children
Oppressive
Mortgage.

See here, and you tell me.

Good Heavens!

Thanks to Meg for being a trooper last night.

Cracker Barrel, you suck. Your baby changing table was gross, and you gave my baby, and my sister, diarrhea.

Poor G had to ride home naked with shoes on, and a mere blanket for warmth. Good thing "Sparky" drives fast.

Leavin'

No, Sugar Daddy isn't finally leaving me. Well, not like that. He's off to Chicago, again, after a brief 4 day respite. But this time, he's taking the kids. And I'm not crying, that's for sure.
If I have to say "Because I'm the mom, that's why," or "Can't you just be nice?" or "Don't make me send you to your room and fight it out" or "I'm ready to send in the lions" one more time, I might just, well, I don't really know, but I might do something drastic. Okay, that last one might be a little exaggeration, but sometimes I wish I had a lion just to threaten them with.

So this weekend it will just be Me and G. I know, it should be G and I, but Me and G has a better ring to it, so deal. It comes at a perfect time, really. I mean besides the death threats to the children. It gives me the perfect opportunity to finish the shopping, wrapping, and more shopping. And going to Costco with one kid is like a freakin' vacation. Let's face it. Three is a lot of mouths to shut up. I mean threaten. I mean feed. Yeah, feed, that's it. So I'm taking it easy with G. We plan on sleeping in, and taking lots of naps, and playing lots of games, and taking more naps. And then there will be Costco, and the Mall, and probably a Ward party, and maybe even a dinner out, just the two of us. I'm quite excited.

Meanwhile, Sean will be offering $0.80 on the dollar for a house, which hopefully will be approved in an acceptable amount of time. He'll also be going to dinner with The Ladies, swimming at the Hotel, running errands to the school district, and who knows what else the kiddies will put him up to. I suppose they'll spend too much money, and have too many sweets, but what do I care? He gets to deal with the sugar crash.

So there's the novel. That's a lot of words for a stupid picture of a suitcase. But honestly, I just don't have it in me to be more creative than that at this particular juncture. The creativity is being used elsewhere at the moment. Now if I could just decide on what to get Sugar Daddy for Christmas, I'd be set. Maybe at Costco....

Recap

Sugar Daddy's birthday. He got "Family Guy" on DVD. That show is so funny. We laugh our heads off.

The Nativity being performed by all the grandkids at the Brown family party. This is only a few of the kids, since several weren't there due to their out of town status.

Emma and Maggie at the Nativity scene. Emma was Mary. Maggie was an angel. Am I the only one that sees the irony in that? And for the record, I was never Mary in the family Nativity. Not that I'm bitter.....

Pay it forward

Contest alert!

This is a first for me. I've joined the ranks of blogger contest hostesses. If any of you are in dire need of handmade crap, a la me, the first 3 people to comment will receive a handmade ditty in the next few days. There are no guarantees of the quality of cuteness of said ditty, but rest assured, it won't be that bad.

Thanks to Britt for sharing her crafty ways. There are rules, however. You have to have a blog of your own (Sorry, MOM!), you have to be prepared to pay it forward as well, and you have to COMMIT to actually following through. If you are one of the winners, you must make a crafty item, and send it to your first three commenter's. If you need a better understanding of the rules, check out Britt's web site here.

Sugar rush

I had to make Sean's birthday cake yesterday. A banana cream cake. It is quite a yummy dessert. (Un)Fortunately for me, I only had to use about 2/3 of the cake mix. What would you do with 1/3 of a yellow cake mix? Make cupcakes? Make a mini cake? Throw it away? Well, if you know me at all, you don't even have to ask what I did with it.

Yep, I did.

All of it.

And it was mighty scrumptious.

To my sugar daddy

Dear sugar daddy,

I love you so much. You make me smile, laugh, cringe, cuss, you can irritate me beyond belief. But somehow, I can never, ever stay mad at you. You never fight back when I want you to. You always break into song at restaurants and grocery stores. You never listen, but you always seem to know what I mean. You try and be refined. But I know it's just an act. You're cute when you get romantic. Sometimes you drive like a grandpa, other times you scare me to death with your darting in and out of traffic. You can fix anything. You know things that the average human has no idea about. Most of the time you're full of crap. But it's sweet. I love you for so many reasons. I'm glad it's your birthday so I can tell you how I feel. I hope you have a good day, and many other good days to come.

Love,
Your pain in the butt.

Outfit of the day

My dear Maggie. She likes to dress herself. This is the latest in her repertoire. Good thing we were just going to Wal-Mart. She fit right in.

Things that must go

1. Fat chicks in Tie-Dye shirts.
2. Yo Gabba Gabba.
3. Socks with sandals.
4. Smoking.
5. News anchors with mustaches. You too, ladies.

Feel free to add.