Funny things kids say!

Sometimes kids say funny things. This happened on Christmas Eve while we were wrapping presents. Guy was in our bedroom wrapping presents when he realized that he really didn't know what he was doing. He told Amelia that he was at a loss and needed some help. So, Amelia said, "Stay here. I'll go get help." She came running into the kitchen where I was and said, "Mommy! There is something wrong with Daddy!" Luckily, he had already called to me saying that he needed help with the presents so I wasn't concerned that he was hurt or anything like that. By the time I got there, we were both laughing at this hilarious conversation.

Festival of Lights

Last night, we took the girls to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork. Amelia tends to get sleepy in the car so we had to work really hard to keep her awake until we got there, even though it was just a 5 minute drive from our house. Once she saw the lights though, her eyes were wide open with excitement. My favorite part was that we got to stay in our nice warm car and take our time driving through the lights. Even Ashley let out a few "Ah's" when she saw something that she liked. There were a lot of animated displays like a frog catching flies, a ski jumper, and a dinosaur hatching out of an egg. Amelia loved to watch the scenes come to life and find all the different Santa's. There was even a Nativity scene all done in lights! When we got to the end, Amelia wanted to start all over again. I'm really glad that we got a chance to do this and hopefully it will become a tradition for us.

'Tis the Season

What a busy time we have had these last few days. But it has been so fun getting together with family.The fun all started for us on the Sunday before Christmas. We went to the Colling's (my Mom's side) Family Christmas party. This year it was especially memorable for everyone. For the past few years, we have done a little $5 gift exchange between everyone and it has been a ton of fun. But this year, we decided to do something that we haven't done for probably 20 years...We decided to help a family that wasn't going to get a visit from Santa. The family consisted of a Mom and Dad and six kids that we split up between my Mom and her six siblings. We were assigned the one year old baby in the family and it was so fun to go shopping for her and make sure that she would have warm clothes this winter and a few toys from Santa. After Santa made a visit during our party, he told us that he needed to make another delivery to this family. So, we all came along to help Santa deliver the presents and fixin's for Christmas dinner to this wonderful family. It was such a great feeling to be able to help a family have Christmas and hopefully we will be able to do it all again next year.

On Monday, Christmas Eve, we headed down to Sterling to spend the day with Guy's family and have a little Christmas Eve dinner. For the most part, it was a really relaxing day. By the time that we left to come home, the roads were snow packed and it was still coming down. Normally it takes us about an hour and a half to get home, but that night it took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes. After we dressed the girls in their Christmas pajamas and put them to bed, it was time for Santa and Mrs. Claus to get to work. All the presents needed to be wrapped and I still needed to put another coat of paint on the kid's table and chairs and put them together. I was up until about 4 a.m. and then Amelia woke up at 8 a.m.
Christmas morning was really laid back at our house. Luckily, I was able to keep the girls away from seeing the living room and all the presents until after we had eaten breakfast. Amelia loved opening presents and handing presents to everyone. Once Ashley opened a toy, she didn't want to put it back down so Amelia opened a lot of her presents. Both Ashley and Amelia were really excited to see the table and chairs that Santa left. Hopefully they will be able to get a lot of coloring and other projects done at that table over the years.

Christmas afternoon we headed up to West Valley to spend the rest of the day with my Mom, her husband Steve, my sister Tamara and my Grandpa Choo-Choo. We opened more presents and then had a wonderful Christmas dinner together. We left to come home late that night and I was really starting to drag due to my lack of sleep from the night before. Luckily, Amelia let my sleep in until 9 a.m. the next morning so I was able to catch up on my sleep just a little bit. Overall, it was a great few days but I am really looking forward to a weekend with nothing planned and hopefully we can recover a little bit.

Ashley's 18th month check-up

Even though Ashley won't be 18 months old until Sunday, we had her check-up on Wednesday, most likely because the doctor is going to be out of town over Christmas. It was great to see how much she has grown. It's never a surprise that she is tall for her age but it is so fun to see it plotted on the little growth chart. So, she is off the chart for her height and in the 90th percentile for her weight and head circumference. She had to get three shots and she didn't even cry. What a brave girl.
After moving to Utah County and not knowing anyone in the area, I hurried and just picked a pediatrician for Amelia out of the phone book. When Ashley was born, I just kept the same pediatrician. I was never completely happy with him, but I just couldn't justify switching to a new doctor when there was really nothing wrong with the doctor that I had. Now back up just a little bit...When I was in the hospital after having Ashley, my regular pediatrician was out of town so I got to see two different doctors that were on call for the weekend. I was really impressed with one of them but I still wanted to give my regular pediatrician a chance. But when Amelia turned three, I decided that it would be a great time to give this doctor that I met in the hospital a chance. Well, I was really happy with how her appointment went and so I made an appointment for Ashley's next check-up with the same doctor. One of my favorite things that this new doctor does is that he sends out a little questionnaire to fill out about your child about a week before your visit. It has really helped me to notice the amazing things that my kids are doing and how much they are learning. I think that this pediatrician is a keeper!

Tree Decorating

Having a Christmas tree this year is something very special to us. We have not had a Christmas tree since Amelia was 3 months old and we were living in Nibley. And that year, I only had the energy to put lights up on the tree and the ornaments just stayed in the box for the year. The following year, we were living in our tiny basement apartment in Payson and there was just no room for a tree and all of our decorations were in storage so we just didn't get a tree that year. Last year was our first year in our new house in Springville and Guy's truck was missing an engine and so we had no way to bring a tree home. I tried to tell Guy that we could just strap it to the roof of our car, but he didn't think that was such a great idea. I ended up buying some garland to go on our railing and then I just hung the ornaments on that.

So, this year, I was really determined to get a tree. The day that I had wanted to go get a tree, Guy had the heater core out of the truck and it was snowing pretty hard outside so we put it off for a few days. When the day came again to go and get a tree, it was raining but I knew that if we didn't hurry and get it, we might just decide that it was too late and not get one...again. It took me three days to put lights on (about 12 strands) and two separate trips to the store to buy more lights. And even after all those lights, we still have a bare spot that I just turned towards the wall. After that, I took a few days off to recover before I put ornaments on. Ashley thought that the funnest thing to do was to take off all the ornaments so pretty soon, every ornament was hanging about 4 feet up on the tree. It makes for a very interesting tree and lots of memories.

Happy Birthday Guy!

On Sunday, we celebrated Guy's 34th birthday. Or, as he likes to say, his sixth 29th birthday. He really doesn't want to admit that he is getting older and I think that he will be so happy when I join the over 30 club, too.

We started out the day with the birthday boy choosing what we should have for breakfast. Usually I make waffles on Sunday morning but he chose to have a hash brown and egg casserole. Yummy! The rest of the day was a little busy with church

but luckily I was able to make him a special birthday cake. Amelia loved watching the cake bake in the oven

and she couldn't wait to eat it. Of course, she wanted to help Guy blow out his candles but he was really afraid that she was going to spit on the cake. But who cares if there is a little bit of spit on the cake. Then Amelia and Ashley got to lick all the frosting off the candles and after having cake, both girls had a great chocolate mustache. I just think that we should have birthdays more often so that we have a good excuse to have cake!

Simple Pleasures

I love watching Amelia and Ashley have fun with the simple things in life. And I really love being able to capture some of them.



Last week I left the broom out and Amelia started riding it around the house. Soon, Ashley grabbed on too and the two of them went around and around the house for what seemed like forever. It was a great time for me to get a little something done. And they were even learning great skills like team work and sharing.



As I started putting up Christmas decorations earlier this week, Amelia and Ashley decided that the empty boxes were just about the funnest things to play with on this planet. And this went on for a few days afterwards as well. (Amelia later told me that Ashley's box was a barn and that Ashley was a kitty.) Ashley just loved to sit in her box and play. Amelia decided that her box was going to be a bed. So, she got a pillow and a blanket and sat in her little box for about an hour. I guess that all that decorating was exhausting.

Gingerbread Houses

One of my favorite holiday traditions is to make a gingerbread house. And this is even more fun getting together with my extended family and seeing all the different ideas that we all come up with to make our houses unique. Sharing the star tipped frosting bags was just about the biggest conflict that we had. But none of us had ever laughed so hard than when blizzard Amelia hit the Howick home. Instead of the light dusting of powdered sugar that Grandma Corinne was going for, Amelia pretty much dumped the powdered sugar all over the pristine gingerbread house and there was no sign of this storm stopping because we were all laughing too hard to do anything about it. In the end, more holiday memories were born and there were smiles all around.

Amelia does everything to the extreme. This picture was taken before she dumped the entire bag of sprinkles out on Grandma's house and before the blizzard hit.

Now look at the sprinkles in front of the house and all the snow falling. She said that Grandma's house needed more winter.

What a crazy group!

After all the houses were done, we decorated a gingerbread train for Grandpa Choo-Choo. Amelia loved helping Auntie Tamara put candy all over the train. It must be hard for a little kid to have so much candy in front of them and not eat it.

I don't want to go to Nursery!

I heard the strangest noise when I walked by the Nursery door on Sunday on my way to find Guy so that I could hand Ashley off to him. It was the sound of Amelia...crying. Amelia has never put up a fight to go to Nursery so I was really confused when I heard this strange sound coming from her. Guy and I started her in Nursery when she was 15 months old because we both had callings at the time where it was really hard to juggle her and do the other things that we needed to do. Every week, we would drop her off and she would go straight for the toys not even looking back to say goodbye. But this week, she was crying because Daddy took her to Nursery and not to Primary. For the past couple of weeks, I have been taking her to Primary for singing time to help her make the transition to Sunbeams at the beginning of the year. Apparently, she has really enjoyed this time in Primary and wanted it to be a full time thing. So, I took her to Sharing Time and singing time and then she went with the Sunbeam class for lesson time. It was amazing!! She was so excited about every bit of Primary. I hope that this love for Primary continues for many years.

Snow!

We finally got some snow that actually stuck around. Amelia was so excited to come outside and help me shovel. She went and got a little garden shovel out so that she could do her part. I guess that the only tool left for Ashley was a rake but she didn't really care. Amelia kept saying that she want to make the biggest snowman in the universe, but by the time I was done shoveling, Ashley was soaked to the bone and really sad so we had to go inside. This was Ashley's first big experience with snow since last year she wasn't crawling or walking or so she didn't get to have play time in the snow. Amelia, on the other hand, wanted to go outside ever since she looked out the window on Saturday morning and saw all the snow. This is going to be a really fun winter letting the girls play in the snow and really enjoy childhood.

Take a picture of us!

Being the princess that she is, Amelia already knows how adorable she is and wants her picture taken all the time. I used to be able to pretend to take her picture with my "air camera" but now she loves to be able to see her picture right away on the screen of our digital camera. So, whenever she is doing something cute, she will say, "Mom, take my picture" and then wait with a cheesy grin on her face while I get the camera. Pretend pictures just won't do anymore. The good news is that it forces me to capture the simple moments in the lives of my children when they are pretending to cook dinner together or just sitting on the same chair and not screaming at each other. The biggest problem that I have run into is that usually one girl will have a great big smile and the other just doesn't care much about the pictures. But I love getting pictures of them together so it is a compromise that I am willing to make. The last picture is of Amelia with my cousin Shauntelle from Thanksgiving with her classic cheesy grin!

Thanksgiving fun!

Needless to say, things have been a little bit busy lately. Starting on Wednesday last week, I got together with my mom, my sister, my mom's friend Launi and her daughter Megan to make pies. After many of hours baking, we had about 35 pies made that would be going to at least six different places for dinner.

On Thursday, we went to my aunt Linda's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I made asparagus roll ups and Lori decided that we need to get together just for an appetizer party because that is our favorite part of waiting for dinner to be done. Dinner was absolutely fabulous (as always) and after we were all stuffed, the men slept on whatever couch they could find and the women went for a little "holly walk". Then, we all chipped in to clean up and put away leftovers so that we could make it over to aunt Lori's for pie. We also celebrated my cousin Erin's birthday, but everyone was too full to eat any cake.

Since there are seven children in my mom's family and they all can't make to dinner at the same place, we try to all get together for pie. It was so fun to see a lot of my cousins (and their kids) that I don't get to see very often. And the best part is that there are so many different kinds of pie that there is something there that everyone will like. My favorite part was to watch my cousin Doyle take his son James around saying, "What kind of pie should we try next?" We also tried really hard to get a picture of Grandpa Choo-Choo with all of his great-grandchildren. It worked out pretty well except Ashley was really sad and so Guy had to sit and hold her in the picture. She has been really clingy lately, due to either teeth coming in or the fact that I have been trying to get so many things done for Thanksgiving that I haven't been able to hold her all the time like she would like. (As I am typing this, she is cuddled up on my lap instead of sitting on the couch with Amelia watching a movie.)

Friday, we had another get together planned at Guy's parents house in Sterling. We had planned to leave by 11:30 but there was a crisis at work and Guy had to go in and help straighten everything out. So, we left about an hour later than we wanted to but it all worked out great. Luckily, we got to see Julie and her new baby who live in Idaho.

All in all, it was a great weekend with lots of great food. We will be eating leftovers for the next week which means that I don't have to cook (yeah!). However, I did make a yummy hash brown and egg casserole for dinner on Saturday night with the leftover ham and I am planning on doing a yummy turkey tetrazini with some of the leftover turkey. This way, we won't feel like we are eating Thanksgiving dinner for the next week. But, we do have plenty of pie to last us that long and then some.

Blinds

I've always been bothered with the curtains in Amelia's room and our kitchen and the amount of light that they lack blocking out. Amelia is always up at the crack of dawn since she has both an east and north facing window in her room. And I have always been blinded by the morning sun in the kitchen as I am getting breakfast ready and doing dishes. So, I finally decided to go to Home Depot and buy some faux wood blinds for these three windows. I was able to get one of Amelia's window's done on Saturday but then ran into problems today with her other window. I thought that the windows were close enough to the same size to get the blinds cut at the same size but I was wrong. So, I need to head back to Home Depot and get just a smidgeon more cut off so that the blinds will fit. The kitchen blinds went up fairly easily considering that I was working over the sink and on top of the counter. When we lived in Nibley, Guy hung the blinds for just about every window except the kitchen because he knew that it was going to be a huge pain to be leaning over the sink. Well, he was right but I am definitely glad that we finally have blinds in the kitchen.

New Glasses!

After 3 1/2 weeks of wearing 10 year old glasses, I finally got a new pair! I am planning on getting Lasik done in January, so in order to prepare for it, I have to go without my contacts. So beginning in the middle of October, I took out my contacts and I have been wearing these really old and outdated glasses. So, I decided to get new glasses since my optometrist told me that I would get a better result from my Lasik the longer that I went without my contacts. Since I am only planning on wearing these glasses for about the next three months, I decided to go with something a little bit trendy which is something that I never thought that I would do. But after a couple of days, I am really starting to like these new glasses and I really don't mind wearing them like I thought I would. However, it will be great to have Lasik done and not have to worry about glasses or contacts. The other really great thing about these glasses is that I am seeing a lot better than I was with my old prescription. Apparently, my eyes have changed just a little bit in the past ten years.

Joining the blogging world!

After having many of my friends e-mail me to let me know that they have started a blog, I decided to give it a try. I have always wanted a way to keep family and friends updated on what we are doing and this seems like a great way to do it. We have lived in four different areas since we have been married and we have made a lot of friends along the way and hate to leave them when it comes time for us to move. Hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with all the friends that we have made through the years. And be able to stay more in touch with our family that we don't get to see as often as we would like. If all goes well, I will keep on top of this and maybe you will even get to hear from Guy every now and then too.