Those Boys

So I was putting Corbin and Taylor to bed tonight and things were going so well...we said prayers, I read two books, no nap today, and it was 8:00, I thought they would be sound asleep fast! Well 15 minutes later I go back in their room, they were laying in bed, but they had taken all their clothes off their hangers and thrown them in a big pile and then tried hooking all the hangers together to make some kind of mechanism...ahhh! I was so upset and started to use a very sturn voice! Corbin knew how upset I was and so he said, mom do you want to hear me sing and then started singing Follow the Prophet! Oh man...how could I possibly be mad, now. So I listened and left it at that, I guess in the morning we will be cleaning up that mess!

Sick, Alayna's Wedding!!, Red Iguana, Sick, FHE

If you have wondered where I have been, well, I'm here now! At first I was sick with that yucky cold that is going around, but that's over! The funnest thing that happened was Alayna and Jeff's wedding! Alayna was the most beautiful bride. Taylor loved calling her a princess..and she was!! Everything turned out so wonderful and we are so happy to have Jeff in our family!

Coming out of the temple. Isn't her dress beautiful! Justin's mom made the robe and her veil, they turned out great!

One of the greatest things about them getting married was that it brought Jen and Ryan back into town. The boys were so happy to see their cousins!

Corbin and Jordan giving big loves!!

Taylor and Teague waiting for Alayna and Jeff to come out.

Justin feeding Levi at the reception, Levi did so good, but it eventually became too much stimulation!

Such a beautiful bride and such adorable kids!

While we were waiting for Alayna and Jeff to come out, Corbin went up to these doors and starting knocking and calling for Alayna!

Also, when Justin told Corbin that Alayna and Jeff got married just now, Corbin asked if she was going to have a baby now!

Alayna thought it was great so she grabbed Levi and told Corbin she had her baby...he didn't fall for it!

Cute Ainsley, the only girl in the bunch! She looked so adorable. Jen made her dress and it turned out so cute, she even made the bottom of her dress to look like Alayna's!

After the temple, Justin, the kids, and I went to the Red Iguana. Usually there is a huge waiting line, so when we drive by we usually just pass because we don't want to wait! But at 2:00 on a Friday afternoon, we didn't wait at all. It was sooo good! My favorite thing was the Vegetable Chimichanga...with all the guacamole and sour cream!!!Poor Corbin tried the salsa and chips and it was way too hot, we put sour cream around his lips to cool them off!
Silly Taylor!

After the wedding, I ended up getting strep throat...aah! I thought I was done being sick. All I can say is that I love antibiotics...life savor! So last night, Justin did our Family Home Evening, it turned out so well! He is so good at coming up with last minute lessons! He decided to make a Christmas list that the boys can give to Jesus. Each time they do one of the things on the list, they get to color it in and then when it is all colored in we are going to wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree! So last night, Corbin went into his room and shut the door (and of course we eavesdropped), we could here him saying his little prayers! It just made my day and helped make me feel so much better.

After Corbin watched Justin make the list for Jesus, he grabbed some paper and went into the bathroom to make a list he wanted to give to Jesus. He came out in a couple of minutes and brought this out...we were blown away. He sounded out the letters for each of these words and then wrote them out. One of my favorites is when he tried writing cow...cao. I guess he will be ready for Kindergarten next year!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I am so excited for Christmas this year! The boys are a year older and we are so blessed to have Levi added to our family! You might think I'm crazy, but we got out the Christmas tree on Monday and on Tuesday we decorated it. Last night I couldn't wait to turn out all the house lights and only have the Christmas tree lights on, it was so beautiful.
You would think that my favorite holiday was Christmas, but it's not, it's Thanksgiving. When Christmas is here, then it's all over, but when Thanksgiving is here, it has just begun. I just feel like Christmas decorations need to be added to Thanksgiving to make it even more fun.
I have to thank my parents for always making the Christmas season so special. I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas time growing up and I just hope that my children will have just as many. I remember every year my mom and dad would tell us that this Christmas wasn't going to be very big because money was tight, but every year they out did themselves and with six children presents were piled high to the ceiling!
One tradition I remember was when my dad would get these christmas chocolates and we would all stand around the counter and take turns picking one out until they were all gone.
Every Christmas Eve (as long as I can remember) we would have my mom's delicious ham loaf, potato rolls, and all the trimmings. We still get to do it every Christmas Eve, but we have gone from a family of 8 to a family of 31!
On Christmas Eve night we would go to bed and in the morning we had to get up and do the paperroute. I remember taking the newspaper to different families and they would have their windows open and I could see all the kids inside opening presents. I thought that is just wasn't fair, but once I got home, my parents definately made up for it!
Many of you know that my dad is a wood worker and he builds so many incredible things. On Christmas, dad would usually build us something and, for some reason, whenever I smell varnish, I think of Christmas! One of my favorite things was my bear house (it's a log house). The detail is amazing and a couple of years ago, my dad got it out of the attic and gave it back to me! But the most wonderful thing my dad has made for me happened a couple years ago when my mom and dad came to our home and wanted to give us our christmas. We were expecting a check, but then dad walked in carrying something big. My mom and dad have a clock at their home that is so beautiful and dad had made the same ones for my grandparent. When they passed on, my older sibling got them, but this year my dad made three more for the rest of us. I was blown away! I couldn't believe he did that for us. I don't know how long it took him, but it is the best present I have ever recieved!
Thanks mom and dad for making Christmas the most wonderful time of the year!!

New Blog

I am starting a new blog that I have wanted to start for a really long time, but I am finally, sort of, getting to it!! One of my favorite things to do is cook and bake and especially try new recipes out. This blog will be full of recipes of any kind. I wanted to post it here to see if any of you are interested in being added to this new blog so that we can all go on and share recipes. Please let me know if you do, I already have a lot of addresses, so just let me know and then I can add you! Thanks!

By the way, I am only leaving my blog non-private for a couple more days, so anyone who cares to check out my blog every now and then, please let me know. I have been so excited with all of you who want to stay connected...it really does mean a lot to me!

Elections

All I can say is I am so glad that the elections are finally over! It was way too long of a process and even though it did not turn out the way I wanted it to, life will go on. At least I still have a wonderful family, the gospel, a home, Justin's job so I can stay home, food to eat, and the list goes on...

Yesterday my friend Jen babysat Taylor and Levi, so that I could take Corbin to vote with me. This was our conversation before going...

Mommy: Corbin, do you want to go on a date with me.

Corbin: What do you do on a date?

Mommy: You can go to dinner, go see a movie, or go vote.

Corbin: Why are you going to go vote?

Mommy: We need to go vote for a new President.

Corbin: Why, did President Monson die?


Thank goodness, no.

Sorry...will you send me your address

I watched the news last night and there was a segment on blogging! Go to ksl.com to find out more information. It is just sad what people will do, how pathetic can you be? Anyway, I feel like I want to go private now for a little more protection. Please send me your e-mail address. Thanks everyone, and sorry

Happy Halloween

Here are some pics from Halloween! It was lots of fun to have Mandi, Jon, Hunter, Jaina, Alayna, Jeff, Alisa, and Jerry over for a party! Of course, Corbin was a pirate and Taylor was superman! My sister-in-law made an awesome Black Widow costume that I got to wear...sorry no pictures. Justin held Levi most of the time - so he said he was a mom. This year has been my favorite Halloween so far, the kids were so excited and they had so much fun getting ready for our party! We found some really cute ideas from familyfun.com - great website.

Can you tell what these are? The boys helped me put the gummy lifesavers and M&Ms on. They thought that it was so cool and so gross!

Pretty scary witch. I thought we needed to add something besides candy to our menu!

These were my favorite thing...thanks to Mandi for helping me out with this, she did most the work! They are mini caramel apples, except we didn't use caramel, we used melted peanut butter chips and metled chocolate! They were so yummy!

Hunter, Taylor, and Corbin...Trick - or - Treat!!!

Alayna asked Corbin what she should be for Halloween. He told her to be a fairy...so she was! Isn't that so sweet? Corbin told Jeff that he should be a pirate with him. ARRR, matey!

On Monday, I did my grocery shopping and found these costumes half off! The boys were soooo excited and they have been playing Knight in Shining Armor for the last 24 hours!! We have the book Sleeping Beauty and so Corbin, of course, has to act out the book. He said that he was Prince Phillip and I was Princess Aurora, such a sweetheart!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Now I really look forward to Thanksgiving and I've been loving the Christmas music!!....I just love this time of year, it's the best!!!

High School Memories

I found this great post off of Megan's blog and it looked like so much fun!

1. Did you marry someone from your high school? No

2. Did you car pool to school? Car pooling was the funnest part! I believe it was usually Cami, Shannon, Melissa, and Megan. We would blast up the radio and sing along! Ahhh, memories

3. What kind of car did you have? Geo Prism…the coolest car ever! It was originally Mandi’s (we had some good memories with her being the owner), but then I was lucky enough to get it and had even more great memories! The time me and Cami were driving home from work and I got pulled over right by the tabernacle because my dumb brake lights were out (they were always out!!!) As soon as we pulled over, Cami realized she didn’t have her seatbelt on (I can’t remember if I did) so she hurried and threw it on. When the cop walked up he said, "nice try"!!
The other time I got pulled over (for the brake light), Shannon, Annika, and Dustin were with me and we had just done our doughnut run at Kent and were driving on Mainstreet. I was eating my doughnut while I was driving and had frosting on my lips when the cop walked up…humiliating. The cop asked if we were having a good time!
I loved that car! I have so many other memories, but I won’t bore you!

4. What kind of car do you have now? A sweet Toyota Sienna

5. It's Friday night...where are YOU?(then) Driving around in the geo with our hot chocolate and then heading back to the Jones for our late night talks on Shannon’s bed!

6. It's Friday night..where are you? (now) Watching a fun kid movie with the boys or else watching a cool movie with Justin. We usually love relaxing and just hanging out at home on Friday nights, it’s the best!

7. What do you do now? I am lucky enough to stay home with three handsome boys!

8. Were you a party animal? Well, not really. It depended on where I was. School, no. YWs, an animal!!

9. Were you considered a flirt? Are you kidding me? When I liked a boy, I totally avoided him. I even did it to Justin, and I just about lost my chance to be with him!

10. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I did choir in Jr. High.

11. Did you get suspended/expelled? No.

12. Can you sing the fight song? Nope, but I can hum the tune.

13.Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? Well, of course I have to say Mrs. Packer, she’s the funnest, nicest, sweetest teacher ever and she never gets mad at her students or gets embarrassed in front of the class room! I love that teacher!! I also enjoyed Mrs. Stolworthy, Mr. Bishop, and the Seminary Teachers were pretty fun!

14. Where did you sit during lunch? Cami and I sat in our cars in the McDonalds drive through…good times! Also, Cami, Shannon, Megan, and I would go to Taco Bell! There was this one time we went there and I was driving so I had to order the food. I was just getting over a cold and so I sounded like wheezy from Toy Story. When I first pulled up, I could barely talk. The poor lady taking the order could only hear a bunch of high school girls laughing in the background!

15. What was your school's full name? Box Elder High School

16. What was your school mascot? A bee

17. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No, but I would love to sit back and watch all of my favorite memories! If I were to go back, I would try and be more talkative in some of my classes. I was really shy if I was in a class where I didn’t know too many people, if I had good friends in my class, then I would talk a lot! But honestly, the person I got to hang out with the most is now my sister-in-law, so why would I go back!!

18. What do you remember most about graduation? Not much. But I do remember the all night party, I thought that I was so cool to stay up all night! Then I slept the morning away and when I woke up I was pretty sad because it was all over. I didn’t know what was in store for the coming years and I felt like my childhood was over. Little did I know, I had this to look forward to!!!

19.Who did you go to prom with Sr yr? I didn’t go to Sr. Prom, but for Jr. Prom I wouldn’t have gone if it wasn’t for Jen. She knew I wanted to go to Prom, so she arranged for her brother Jake, to go with me, isn't she the best. Who would do that for their little 16 year old sister-in-law? And I was able to be in Cami’s group!!

20. Did you have fun at Prom? It was fun, although I felt bad because Jake convinced me to get Shrimp and I had only a few bites of it, I couldn’t stomach it. So I felt so bad that I wasted the rest of it! Another memory was when I was getting ready for prom, one of my contacts ripped a little and it was my last pair. I was determined not to wear my glasses (ugly!!) so I still put the contact in. By the end of the night, my eye was blood shot!

21. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom (Senior Ball) with? I haven’t seen him in a while, but I talk to his sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and nieces all the time!!!

22. Are you planning on going to your 20 year reunion? If we had one, I would consider it, if Cami went!

23. Do you still talk to people from school? Mandi, Cami, Cindi, Shannon! Also, we have a Brigham City girls blog that we keep in touch with all the girls we grew up with!

I tag anyone who wants to do this, I would love to read about everyone's experiences in high school. I also need a good laugh...Tyson, Landon, Annika...

I just love this guy!!!

Levi, has been such a joy to me. I just can't believe that I can love another boy so much!!! This stage of babies lives goes way too fast - I have been soaking up every minute, but I still can't believe that he is 2 1/2 months old. Levi has been such a smily baby, especially first thing in the morning! On Sunday, I had to go to a meeting in the morning and Justin said that Levi was smiling at him for 20 minutes! My favorite part about his smile is the look in his eyes!

Levi had his 2 month appointment 2 weeks ago. He weighs 12.2 lbs. and he's 23.5 inches long. He is in the 75 - 90 percentile...my babies, that high??!!

I took this picture when he woke up this morning - don't you just LOVE those cheeks and wrists!

He smiles so much for his brothers, too! Taylor loves getting right in his face to get him to smile, it's a bit much for Levi, but he will still smile!

One of the best things about Levi is his sleeping habit! He has been sleeping through the night for almost a month now! For me, this is amazing! Corbin didn't sleep through the night until he was one and Taylor was about 6 months! Levi usually goes to sleep around 10 o'clock and wakes up between 5 and 7, then we will go back to sleep for a couple more hours. Thank little Levi!!

I just love my baby so much! Please don't grow up too fast!!!

Monica and Landon's Halloween Party! Thanks for the great party - we had so much fun! This was the first time that we got dressed up for a Halloween party the whole time we've been married! Taylor has been so excited to be Superman for the longest time. When you ask him who he is going to be for Halloween he says, "Superman, da na na naa!!" We tried to convince him to be a pirate with us, but he wasn't going for it. Corbin is totally into swords and guns, so being a pirate is perfect for him! Thankyou Jessie for letting us borrow this outfit...it actually fits! Levi had his shots the day before, so he was getting some much needed sleep most of the time, but we did have a little bandana around his head...cute baby pirate!

My dad went to a lot of trouble to make this clever costume. I think only one person there got what he was. The rest of us had not seen the movie Signs. Landon thought he was an antenna. I wish I had a picture of my mom's costume, it was awesome. She is quite the witch, but the scary thing is her cackle...way too good!Hands down...the best costume!! Cami had Sarah Pallin down so perfect and Tyson didn't make a bad McCain! They are the funniest couple! I could just sit back and listen to them for hours!

Hermoine Granger. I just have to say that this quote from Jen's blog says it all:
Abby- "I own sarcasm Mom, I didn't say you could borrow it."
10/1/08 (She owns sassy too.)Can you believe that bite??
Taylor has the right idea!
Way to go Justin!

Keep on trying Abby!!

Chomp!!

Beatuiful!

Corbin and Taylor have some of the best Aunts and Uncles! Espcially Alisa and Jerry! They have been taking Corbin and Taylor one at a time and doing a party with them. This is what they did last week. Taylor's pumpkin is a silly face and Corbin drew a face on his!

We went to Gardner Village with my friend Jen and her two kids Jimmy and Iris. We had lots of fun! Isn't Iris adorable in her outfit. Whenever Iris would come and walk by me, so many people would stop and say, "oh, your little girl is adorable - I just love her outfit." I wish I could claim her! The boys had so much fun seeing all of the witches and pumpkins!Taylor and Iris dancing to the Halloween music that was on.

Here is Jen, Jimmy, and Iris! Are they not the cutest? Jen has been such a great friend to me and we have lots in common - especially frisbee and aerobics!! I think one of the funnest things is for us to watch Iris and Taylor to play together - they are sooo cute together! Whenever we get together to play, those two run off and play by themselves! Jimmy is such an adorable baby, I think I have only heard him cry two times.

Thanks for the great time Jen...you are so awesome!

We have been up to lots lately - sorry there are so many pictures, but I just had to share them! One of the funnest things was that Jen, Ryan, Jordan, Teague, and Ainsley came to visit for a week and a half. It was so much fun to see them. Since they were here, we had a reunion frisbee game with all the die hards that we used to play with. What fun - we had around 25 people there, which makes it really hard to play, but it was still a fun workout! Justin is in the red. He is such an awesome player and I am so happy that he introduced me to frisbee, it's one of my most favorite things to do!

Corbin and Taylor got to ride in a backhoe with Uncle Jerry. They absolutely loved it! I think it is every little boys dream to get to ride in a tractor - these boys are so lucky to have an uncle who will take them for rides!!!
About a month ago, Legacy Parkway opened up. It's about 100 yards from our backyard, and luckily it hasn't been as bad as I thought it was going to be. The greatest part is the trail that rides parallel to the road. We love going on bike rides and so to have this right here is great and we are not as worried with Corbin riding on it because then there aren't cars backing out of there driveway. Corbin has totally impressed us with learning to ride without training wheels. One of the first times that we rode this trail, Corbin rode his bike 5 miles!!
It was so much fun to go to the zoo with Ryan, Jen, Jordan, Teague, Ainsley, Alayna, Jeff, Tara, and her two boys. Who doesn't just love the zoo?

We had just seen the gorillas, so of course our little actor (Corbin) had to be a gorilla the rest of the time. We couldn't get him to smile...just roar!



Daddy's boy!! This is one of the first times that Levi gave a real smile..of course to Justin!

Alayna threw a birthday party for Teague. Each boy got to decorate their own cupcake and blow out their own candles!

Corbin is a total boy. Swords, guns, bow and arrows, and tools! He is so his daddy's boy and his grandpa's grandson! He took whatever was in his room and made rigged up this...thing and then took off hunting! Corbin is such a creative boy and is always wanting me to make something with him to add to his collection.

Conference weekend! What a great weekend. The best part was that our boys were so good and we got to listen to most of the talks. I just loved Elder Holland's talk on Angels, it touched me so much and was just what I needed to hear. I know that our Heavenly Father will never leave us alone, especially in our darker days. I am so grateful to belong to our church and get to teach our children about the church.
Saturday night, Jon and his brother went with Justin to the Priesthood session - so it was a girls night out, plust four little boys! It was a blast and I just love my sister so much! She is the best sister and I feel so much closer to her than I ever have and I love it! I'm so happy that they leave just 15 minutes away. We had fun hanging out, talking, taking pictures, and playing Don't Eat Pete!!

Last Friday, Mandi and I went to Brigham and visited with family and had a lunch and party at Cami's. We first got to go say hi to Monica! Monica - Garrett and Emery are so sweet, I loved seeing them too. And a HUGE thankyou for the clothes! Corbin was especially excited about all of them!

We of course had a blast at Cami's! She is the best hostess and knows how to throw a great party. We made these witches brews that were quite delicious! I think the adults had more fun than the kids!

Corbin and Hunter went in Cami and Tyson's backyard and did a little "yard work"! I don't know what they were building, but it kept them busy for quite a while.

I can't believe that just a few years ago we were playing with dolls, than crusing main with our hot chocolate, having our late night "talks", and now we are sister in laws!! To top it off, our children are all about the same age and we get to start all over again!! I just love you two so much!!!