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!!!