Happy Birthday To Me

Yesterday was my birthday, the big 3-4. I had the day totally planned in my head. First we'd go to the Body World exhibit in Salt Lake, then to PF Chang's (oh so good), then later that night we'd have cake and ice cream at my parents house, where Sam would present Wicked Tickets to me. Doesn't that sound nice?

Well, things got a little wacky.

We woke up to a sweet snow storm. I was super happy about it because it was a long time coming. However, we had only driven a few miles towards Body World when we realized the snow storm was going to kick our can if we went any further. So, we rescheduled for next Saturday. We made the scary drive back home and ended up just hanging out for most of the day.

The kids had a blast jumping on the snow filled trampoline:





And yes, my ghetto tramp still has a huge hole in the middle of it, which was really cool because as they jumped and snow fell through the hole, it piled up on the ground. See? I love how it turned into a perfect pointy mound! If I'm being honest, and I'm all about honesty, I was secretly hoping one of the punks would slip and slide right through the hole. That just seems like such typical thing that would happen to them, but no such luck.


Once the kids were frozen, they decided to come inside. I then decided to get some pictures of all my boys.





Sick of looking at my kids yet? Here's some funny shots...
When this kid starts talking I better sharpen my wit-skills because I just know he's going to be dry and witty like his father!


Yeah, that's right, I'm talking about you Cameron!
You can kind of see his teeth. His mouth looks awesome right now, two bottom teeth and top fangs are coming in. Goof ball.


Don't even get me started on this kid...


See those cheeks? I kiss them about a thousand times a day. I can't help it. It's like a drug I can't get enough of!


Anyway, back to the birthday. By evening time I had decided that I needed a "redo" on my birthday because everything had fallen through...Body World, Lunch, due to the weather nobody from my family came to my parents house for cake and ice cream...I was feeling like such a loser!

But then I opened a few gifts that turned my frown upside down!

My parents hooked me up with a coat, which rocked. The last time I bought a coat was like 12 years ago. Let me put it this way, my old coat was in style, then out of style, and then back in style because I had it for so long. Now you can understand why I'm a good mother to boys...girls would have no patience for my shenanigans!

The most amazing part of the evening was right here.


After seeing what was inside this bag, I will never doubt that somebody loves me, unconditionally.


I know you've all heard me talk about Fern a lot. Well, Fern is easy to talk about because she is so wonderful and such an integral part of my life. After Fern learned about Sam standing in line for 6 hours to get tickets to 'Wicked' she decided to do something that I'll never be able to comprehened. She had gotten tickets a few weeks ago through her boss, and so she decided to give us her tickets instead of keeping them for herself! I of course had no idea about this whole story while opening my present.

I was completely confused, and as Sam relayed the entire story, I was totally choked up. Fern is such an amazing example of selfless love! She never expects anything in return, she just truly wants others to be happy. I'm still totally in shock, what an amazing weekend and birthday! Thanks Fern, this totally makes up for all the butterfly crap you give me! ha ha ha! Seriously though, everybody needs a "Fern" in their life!


By the way, Coldstone's peanut butter cup cake....totally blog-worthy!

Wicked Crazy

I have the BEST husband in the whole world!!!!

Can you guess why? Can you?

I'll tell you why! He is the best husband because....drum roll please....
He did NOT get Wicked tickets, but he stood in line for 6 hours, in the FREEZING cold, and walked away empty handed and was not one bit bitter about the whole saga. He literally was within 100 people when the ticket officials told him all that remained were Sunday tickets and he walked away. His motto in life is "it just shakes up the day" and he moves on. Today was one of those days. He did all of it, because he loves me.

I'm now going to "turn the time over to Sam" (I feel like I'm in church when I say that) so he can share his side of the experience with you.

Something Wicked This Way Didn't Come

First of all...big shout out to Harvey, Chris, Chris' wife, and their crew for being my line buddies for 6 hours. What can I say except that I found out I can stand for six hours on a sidewalk in 30-40 degree weather without feeling much of an effect? I was mighty impressed that there weren't any butt-ers (I admit I thought about it). Harvey is V.P. of sales for Les Olsen Company, which is one of our vendors, and we knew some of the same people in his office. Chris is a bishop somewhere and runs multiple call centers in the valley. They were hilarious and helped the time fly by for me. For six hours we laughed about how this probably won't be worth all the time we were spending and all the stuff we woulda', coulda', shoulda', done (i.e., bringing hot chocolate/food to sell, etc.). The line moved pretty good for the first three hours but as we got closer to the entrance it almost ground to a halt. We loved the rumors that were flying around the line about how many tickets were left and how many people we were away (people kept counting out of boredom). Our fears were realized when we were literally two Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine lengths from the door (that equals approx. 100 people and 45 minutes of standing). Some official-looking guy with a badge came out and said there were a few single tickets but everything else left was for Sunday. By this time it was 11:30. I thought I should buy them anyway and sell them on eBay for thrice the price. Carrie and I decided we didn't want to be stuck with tickets...so my work there was done. People couldn't believe I was going to walk away when I was so close to the door. Chris, the bishop, stayed. His wife was making fun of him...asking what he was going to with tickets. "We'd like to excuse the bishop today...he's, uhm...." stuff like that. It made me feel good when people shouted, "Sam, don't leave now!". Chris patted me on the back as I walked passed him. I told them thank you and it was great to meet them. Harvey said, "I feel like I should give you a hug!" I laughed and told them good luck. Would I do that again? Probably not, but there's not a lot I wouldn't do for Carrie. I'm sure we'll get around to seeing it one day.

Seriously?!?!?

Tomorrow is my birthday, and for my birthday, I want tickets to see "Wicked", which comes to the Capitol Theatre in April and May of 2009. Tickets went on sale at the Capitol Theatre at 7am today.
Sam, being the awesome husband that he is, got up at 4am, got ready, and headed downtown to stand in line. He got in line at 5:30am and the line was already around the block and down the street!!!!!
Let's not forget it's 32 degrees outside, and he's already been standing in line for 3 hours. I just talked to him and he's about the 400th person in line right now.

Let's all say a little prayer for Sam. :)

If anybody is heading downtown this morning, can you bring him some hot chocolate?? Maybe a blanket? Ummmm, how about a battery operated space heater?

Parkerisms & Making Candy!

The past few days Parker has done some funny stuff so I thought I better blog it before it's forgotten.

1. Parker knows how to spell his name, but he doesn't necessarily recognize letters. The other day Sam showed Parker the letters "S, W, E, E, T" and asked him what it said. Without even a moments hesitation, he said "I dunno", in other words, "don't know, don't care."

Sam patiently had Parker sound out each letter. Then he said "Okay Parker, now what does it say?" Parker kept saying stuff like "weet" or "ssss" but he would never say "Sweet". Again, Sam patiently tried going over it again. Finally, Parker had enough. He looked at Sam and exclaimed "Ugghhhh! You're wasting my time!" For the love.

2. Fern bought Carson and Parker some Christmas shirts to wear this month. She brought them over on Friday. Here they are:


We were trying to get Parker to memorize what his shirt says. Fern read it to him like 10 times. Then she said "What does your shirt say?" Parker said "I'll knock you off for a dollar?" It struck me as so funny I had tears rolling down my face. I was just glad he didn't say "I'll knock you up for a dollar" or something like that! Later that day I again said "Hey Parker, what does your shirt say?" He replied "I'll give you a naughty dollar!" Oh my crud, what a nut job. Finally last night he nailed it "I'll get you off the naughty list for a dollar!" Phew.

3. And finally....
This afternoon I went to my parents house to make a bunch of candy. I hauled everything in, including three kids because Sam had church meetings all day. I finally got everything in and settled when I hear Parker wail from the bathroom "Mooooommmmmm! I peed my pants!" I was so annoyed! First, to Parker's credit, he has only had this experience about 4 times in his life. He's got great control. Anyway, I don't know what happened, but the damage was done. I had to strip him down, wrap a towel around him like a dress, and haul him back home to get some clean clothes. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. While driving home I called Sam's cell phone to vent. Sam felt bad for me so he suggested I drop Cameron off at the church so he could take care of him. I happily agreed to this new arrangement. As I was driving towards the church Parker nervously said "Is dad going to see me?!?" I confirmed that he was, and Parker got all embarrassed about his towel-dress. So, as Sam opens the van door, Parker totally pretends he's asleep! I about died! Sam said "Hey Parker, did you pee your pants?" Parker doesn't even crack a smile. He just had his head back on his seat with his eyes closed. Sam said a few more things which didn't change Parker's sleeping ploy. Finally Sam said "Parker! Candy!!" Without missing a beat or changing his facial expression, Parker slowly held his hand out for the candy! We laughed our guts out, shut the door, and Parker STILL never opened his eyes or said anything about it. It wasn't until I was driving back to my parents house that Parker opened his eyes and went about his non-sleeping business.

Oh boy, that child is going to cause me lots of laughs and groans as he gets older I think!

I finally did get around to making some candy. Between yesterday and today, I made white chocolate popcorn, caramels, toffee, and nougat. Let me just tell you, I'm tired! Now I just need to cut it, wrap it, package it, and pass it out to neighbors. Yay!

Here's some shots of the goods:





Oh yeah! We received our first "neighbor treats" tonight! Thanks Nat and Ryan! We love you guys!!!

The Last of the Weekend

Here's what we did to end the Thanksgiving weekend:

Saturday afternoon the troops, AKA my kids and nephews, were getting restless. So, we did what any restless group would do.
We bought a whole bunch of Diet Coke and mentos.

Check out Carson's face, he cracks me up!


Guess what Diet Coke and 10 minty mentos tastes like? Well, actually, I'm not sure. However, if you ask Parker he could tell you!


My camera caught some cool Diet Coke foam shots:




Saturday night we headed to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square.

These next pictures were all taken by my brother, Darren.

Darren didn't bring his camera so we happily let him use ours! Here are some of my favorite photos he shot:

Nativity in the reflection pond, in front of the temple


Lights on trees, framing the temple


Boys boys boys: Ethan, Jacob, Kevin, Parker, Carson


My two favorite pictures of the night:



I took one of the above pictures and brightened the leaves from the "picnik" website. Which one do you like better? Original or enhanced leaves?


Now I need to get serious about Christmas...I'm thinking I may blog all the neighbor treats I get this year. That will be fun, don't you think? One of my favorite things about December is coming home from somewhere and looking on the front porch for neighbor goodies. I have a great neighborhood and great friends for this hobby of mine! Yay!!!

Black Friday

Today I attended my very first black-circles-under-my-eyes. You may know it as "Black Friday".

Darren and Dad picked me up at 4:30am. I knew there was a 4:30pm, but until today, I didn't know the "am" existed. I thought it was an old wives tale.

We went to Best Buy, dropped Darren off at the end of the line, which was something like a mile away from the entrance. Then Dad and I went to Sam's club. We thought for sure Darren was going to be a few hours, but we were surprised to see him walking to Sam's Club with big ol' boxes under his arms like 20 minutes later. Who would have thought, but Darren is quite the power shopper! ha ha ha!

Then we headed to Shopko to get my dad some nuts. Wait, that sounds weird....but it's true. On Thanksgiving Day my dad yelled out "I want those nuts!" and pointed to the Shopko ad. They had a three pack of peanuts for $3.99. My dad was convinced it was an amazing deal. So, off to Shopko we went. By this time it was a little after 5am. We got to Shopko, found dad's nuts (again, that sounds weird), and he said to Darren and I "Here, you guys go stand in line, I'm going to look around a bit" OH sure, give the rookie's the crappy job. Well, Darren and I walked all the way to the BACK of the store, thinking that was the end of the line. We were wrong, excruciatingly, painfully, wrong. The dang line wound around the entire perimiter of the inside of the store. The line ENDED at the cash registers, in the bad way....it was like a bad nightmare, but in reverse. Does that make any sense? So, Darren hands me the nuts he was holding and goes to find dad to tell him he's crazy. So now I look like the idiot holding four 3-pack cans of nuts, in a huge line of serious shoppers. I can't imagine how pathetic people thought I was. Then Darren came back and yelled "Dad says he doesn't need nuts". Well, some people live fine without them I guess.....

Anyways-----a few more stores, a long wait at IHOP (we watched the sun rise while waiting for our pancakes) and then a few stores after that, and I was home. It was 10am and I'd been up for 6 hours. I keep thinking my mascara is smeared, but I really think I just have bags under my eyes. We laughed a lot, got annoyed at bossy shoppers, and laughed some more. Overall, it was fun!

Now that it is officially the Christmas season, I figured we should get rid of all our pumpkins on our lawn. But, to just throw them away is so boring. I wanted to end the fall holidays with a bang. So I told Sam to haul the pumpkins up to the roof and throw them into the garbage can, which was on the street, and see if he could make some baskets. Our friends, Davis and Holly, came for the show. Very fun, I think I'm going to make it a tradition.





Sweet action sequence. I'm loving my new camera.









Tonight we had a Sweet Family gathering to assemble care packages for Sam's brother Rod, who is serving in the army, in Afghanistan. The packages were actually for Rod's entire unit. Let me tell you, when you ask the Sweet family to contribute towards a good cause, they go the extra mile for sure! Thanks to Fern for hosting the chaos, and thanks to Audrey and Jeremy for organizing the entire event, it was a blast!







Phew, I'm tired. Peace out.