Happy 2008, My Kids Are Crazy As Ever

Some people have the "after Christmas letdown" where they are so sad that the holidays are over....but not me. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays but once they are over, I feel this huge relief and I'm so excited to start the new year all fresh (especially once the Christmas decorations are taken down!).

So, my kids are still crazy and wild and here are some pictures of what they've been up to this past week:

Parker went through a "I think I am Superman" phase:


One day Carson was sort of in my face and I needed a break. So I asked him if he would clean my closet doors, which are mirrors. He happily agreed. I then got on a phone call for about 20 minutes and I could still hear him in my room spraying Windex. OH man.... I walked into my room and it was pretty humid and damp in there because he pretty much sprayed 1/4 of a Costco size bottle of Lime Windex in my room, with the doors shut. I think he was a little 'buzzed' because then he ran outside and started cleaning my storm door. It was really cold out there! Oh well, Windex is cheap and my closet doors have never been so clean!


My kids have really been into Scooby Doo lately. For Christmas, my parents found a Shaggy Chia pet and gave it to the boys. Hopefully in 2-3 days we'll have sprouts growing out of Shaggy. Maybe next we can buy the "Clapper". That sort of falls into the same catergory as a Chia Pet, don't you think?


It's quite the process actually...Shaggy had to soak in a bowl of water for 24 hours and the seeds also had to soak with some water for the same amount of time. The seeds turn into this nasty jelly that reminded me of fish eggs. I had the privilege of smearing the fish eggs onto Shaggy's skull. Yummers!


Oh don't worry, I'll take more pictures when it starts growing!

We've been so busy lately that there hasn't been much play time/rough housing with the kids. So Sam let the kids use him as a jungle gym last night. I caught some nice shots. Sam is such a good sport! If it were me, I'd say "ouch, my back...hey, be nice!...don't touch my hair...ug, go find your dad!"




Carson finally pulled his other front tooth out. I was so glad because it was hanging at a weird angle and it stuck out really far. He looked pretty hokey, and not in a good way. This is his 6th tooth he has lost so far...


And finally, tonight the kids were playing with their robotic dinosaur. Parker has worn this sweat suit all night with the hood on. I kept laughing at him because I couldn't see his whole face, just his mouth and chin area. He reminded me of that wicked Star Wars character...um...what's his name? Is it the Chancellor?

Open House for Amy Curtis

Amy Curtis, who is one of my long-time friends from my ward, is moving to the Boston area to obtain her Masters Degree. While I am really excited for this new "chapter" of her life, I'll miss her and it's going to be so weird without her in the neighborhood!

Amy and Cathy put together an amazing menu of Mediterranean food and Cathy hosted an Open House in Amy's honor. The open house had the perfect blend of good friends, good food, and good conversation! My only regret was that I was only there for 3 hours. :) Here are some of my favorite pictures that Sam captured that night:


This is Lisa, Jason, and Jaden Kros. Lisa and I served with Amy in the Relief Society presidency in 2005 and 2006. They have since moved to Morgan and it was a blast getting caught up with them and just laughing about life in general!


This picture makes me laugh because it's me, talking to Ryan Patterson, who is my Bishop. I can't remember what we were talking about, but it looks like I'm giving him a piece of my mind! Bishop, sometimes you just have to tell me to "chill out!"


It's a real shame this picture is blurry. As a going away gift, Ed (Cathy's husband) gave Amy a flask. Cathy, maybe you can comment as to his explanation because I missed it! Anyway, here is Amy trying it out. She was a very good sport....I don't know, maybe she secretly was hoping for one because its contents may keep her warm in those Boston winters!


It was so thoughtful of Cathy to hold the open house on a night when the Utah Jazz were playing....I think this crew temporarily forgot why they were there that night (**hint-you are there to spend as much time as possible with Amy and to give her your best wishes).


The night was great and I'm hoping Cathy puts something on her blog about it...at least she could list the menu and describe the food because it was definitely not your "normal" party food. We were laughing later that night because if I tried to put on an Open House for a friend I'd probably have something like corn dogs and chips. Seriously. Oh yeah, and maybe Mountain Dew!

Christmas!!

I guess I better do a posting about Christmas before we hit 2008...

I had a wonderful Christmas this year! All the stress and preparations were worth it because everything occurred just as it was supposed to. PHEW!

We had a yummy Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house: home-made pizza and crepes. Divine! Carson was really diggin' the pizza making. He chose what we put on the pizzas and I think he was pretty shocked that people listened to him. Merry Christmas Carson, don't get used to people listening to you! ha ha ha. Here he is pulling the pizza out of the oven with my mom.


And here he is standing by his favorite kind of pizza....cheese! Truth be told, it's my favorite pizza as well. That's my boy!!


Sam had a great idea to keep Christ in Christmas. He found a quiz on the internet, or "interweb" as he calls it, and it's all about Christ's life and ministry. Carson and my mom were a team, and that left Dad and myself (and Parker) as a team. Sam would ask a question, if you could answer the question, you got to draw a Candy Land card and take a turn and move your little gingerbread man. I must say, I had no idea that Carson knew so much about Christ. I figured he'd know the basics, but he was really insightful with some of his answers. Way to go Primary Teachers! hee hee.


Every year we do a "left-right gift exchange" on Christmas Eve. A paragraph is written about each person in attendance and we use the words "left" and "right" as much as possible. Everybody has a gift and when you hear "left" or "right" you pass your gift that direction. It is always a good time. After the left-right game, Carson and Parker opened up their Christmas Eve presents, which are, of course, pajamas. Here they are with their pajamas and their left-right presents they received (and yes, I got the wrong sizes for them. They are HUGE. Better than being small I say!)


Christmas morning was a blast. My parents and Fern, Russ, and Mel came over at 7:30 to watch us open gifts. It made Christmas morning perfect! I think I'll invite Russ every year because as the kids opened gifts, he was the one who took the toys out of the package (you know those lame metal twist ties that hold everything in? I hate those things and he patiently removed each and every one!) and he also helped put batteries in toys and assemble them. Soooo nice! One of the freakiest things Carson got was a robotic dinosaur. It has a "roam" setting and the little monster wanders around the house and moves like a real dinosaur (like I've ever actually SEEN a dinosaur, get off my back, I've seen 'Jurassic Park'!). It even pounces and attacks your feet if you are sitting by it. Really cool, yet really disturbing. Here are some random shots of Christmas morning:





After we were done at my house, we went to my parents house for a divine breakfast of egg casserole, bacon, hash browns, toast....all the fixin's. Then we watched them open their gifts and we exchanged gifts with each other. My parents gave Sam the biggest remote control Hummer I have ever seen. I think he was a little excited, what do you think? No matter how old boys get, they still need to get toys for Christmas!


Sam and I got the boys some clothes for Christmas, but we decided not to wrap the clothes because we were tired and they wouldn't care (remember on "The Christmas Story" when the boys opened socks on Christmas morning? They looked at each other, shrugged, and tossed them over their shoulder). So here are matching shirts we got Carson and Parker, they wore them yesterday. Parker doesn't look too thrilled, it's like he KNOWS we are laughing at his expense!


My parents gave Carson this piano mat that you walk on and it plays the notes. The kids played with it all morning today...that is, until Parker got plum tuckered!


Merry Christmas 2007 ya'll!

Sweet Christmas Party

My title doesn't mean "sweet" as in "Dude, that is a sweet mullet", it's "Sweet", like Carrie Sweet...

We had our annual Sweet Family Christmas party on Friday night and it was a most excellent time. The longer I am in the Sweet family, the more I appreciate and love them. They are quirky, funny, sometimes quiet, but there is always someone nearby to laugh with....or at....and most of all, they are the most accepting and loving bunch of people that I've had the honor of knowing.

Sam wanted to get family pictures of each of his 7 siblings and it ended up being the highlight of the evening. The pictures started out serious but by the end of the night we were laughing so hard at all the funny poses. The party was at "Pipe N Tube" which is my brother-in-law's old office building....and it has a pool, hot tub, and kitchen area to boot! The building is for sale and Sam really wants to buy it and turn it into our house....

A HUGE thanks to my cousin Cody for all his camera lighting accessories and to our friend, Ryan Patterson, for his fancy camera!

This is a typical photo from the evening...Parker couldn't sit still. So we call him the "ghost child" in this photo:


Remember that pool I told you about? Well, the kids couldn't STAND being next to a pool and not getting wet....so they both have water spots on their sweaters in this picture. Thank goodness for Photo Shop because Sam removed the spots...however, I can't locate the fixed photo for this blog so you'll get the full effect with the untouched picture! I seriously LOVE Parker's ears!


We found some nice props as the evening went on...such as this lovely stuffed goose. Here are Sam's nephews, Zack, Jake, and John (or maybe it's John and Jake...give me a break okay? They are identicle twins!).


Out of all the pictures Sam took (around 60) this one is my FAVORITE. That is Sam's oldest brother Jeff, his wife Cindy, and Elizabeth and Dallin. I think they were making fun of Jeff for looking pregnant or something, but I can't believe how hard Cindy is laughing!


Here is Sam's brother James, and his kids--Nick and Sydnee. Nick is wearing his dad's glasses and hamming it up:


Here is a precious photo that should be framed!


Here is Fontella with all 8 of her children:


Here are the bro's. I think it's funny that they are all different in height, yet their right hands are all lined up at the bottom of the picture....


Now for some snap shots with the normal camera...
We don't do gift exchanges for the adults anymore because it got too crazy, but the cousins all draw names and get each other a gift. They try to keep the cost around $10. I like this picture of Dallin--all he wants is money for Christmas so his cousin was smart and wrapped a $10 bill around a Snickers bar. Score for him!!


Parker got some awesome PJ's that his Aunt Cindy made along with some books and Carson received some cars that he loved. For some reason, we didn't get pictures...

Once the gifts were opened, we couldn't contain the kids any longer...off to the pool! The pool wasn't really heated though so there was a lot of chattering teeth and goose bumps...but of course they still swam! Here is Parker just after he got out.


And Carson:


Lastly...Fern asked Parker who he loved more, Fern or James. Parker instantly responded "Fern". Then she said "who do you love more, Fern or Mom?". Parker said "Fern!". Then I said "who do you love more, Mom or Fern?" because I thought he was just saying the first out of the two choices. He said "Fern!" and killed my theory. So here is Fern paying Parker to love her more. I'm fine with that as long as she keeps the funding going until he's done with his mission and college!!

Shandy Tagged Me

Here's my response to Shandy's tag:

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. NAPA Auto Parts doing whatever they asked, which usually ended up pretty scary.
2. Painting fences at some Equestrian Tracks with my cousin Maile. More paint got on us than the fences.
3. Picking Raspberries at a raspberry farm when I was 12. Raspberries are still my favorite berry to this day!
4. Hogi Yogi for one day.

Four movies I watch over and over:
1. Sound of Music
2. Cars, because Parker loves it
3. You've Got Mail
4. Forrest Gump (just bits and pieces of it, there are some great one-liners in this movie!)

Four places I have lived:
1. Salt Lake City Utah
2. Rexburg Idaho
3. Redmond Washington
4. West Jordan Utah

Four TV shows I watch:
1. The Office
2. 30 Rock
3. American Idol
4. So You Think You Can Dance

Four place I have been:
1. Indiana, thanks to Mike and Kim
2. Boston, MA thanks to my job
3. Vegas, thanks to my boss and her vacation house
4. Cincinnati OH, thanks to a really crappy airline experience

Four people who email me regularly:
1. Sam
2. Fern
3. lots of co-workers
4. lots of insurance agents

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Training Table Club sandwich
2. Sticky finger rice bowl from Wingers
3. Fried Rice from PF Changs
4. Tostado pizza from CPK
Do you think I eat out a lot?

Four of my favorite songs:
1. Lake of Fire by Nirvana
2. Dreams by The Cranberries
3. Killing me Softly by The Fugees
4. Without You by Eminem
Okay, that was hard, my song choices change all the time!

Four things I am looking forward to in 2008:
1. Having my baby
2. Knowing what my baby's name will be
3. Sleeping a full night again
4. Parker starting pre school

I won't tag anybody because that's how I roll.

A Few Things...Before I Forget

Saturday morning Sam and I woke up to Parker saying "I have to go potty". He insists on making this announcement before he'll just go into the bathroom and take care of business. We heard him put the stool in front of the toilet, we heard him tinkle, and then we heard him flush the toilet. Then, all of a sudden, we heard quite the racket. It involved, something like the stool falling over, the shower curtain 'whooshing' and a really loud "THUMP". Then I counted...1....2....3...and right on queue, Parker started to HOWL!

Because I'm blind as a bat (and let's be honest, I was laughing) Sam ran into the bathroom. Parker had fallen off his stool and right into the bathtub. He smacked his head pretty good in the process and wasn't very happy about laying in the cold tub on a Saturday morning. This picture was taken about an hour later, I don't know why I didn't capture the goose egg while it was bigger because it was a beauty!


After Parker's tumble, we were all wide awake. So we decided to get ready and go to Park City to do a little outlet shopping. It was fun and VERY cold. Don't mind my dusty dashboard, but check out the temp! BRRRRrrrrrrRRRRRR!


Finally, I have to show you a picture of Rudolph that Carson drew today at school:


This is really sad to admit, but I think Carson draws better than me. If I tried to draw Rudolph, you would probably think it was a whale or something hideous like that. Good job Carson!

More Birthday Fun

Tonight I went to dinner with Curtis and Shandy, my parents, and Fern and Russ for my birthday. I chose Village Inn. Why would I choose THAT restaurant? For lots of reasons...It sounded good to my pregnant taste buds, it's cheap, and I love eating breakfast for dinner!

Speaking of breakfast for dinner, check mine out!


Here we are at dinner! Mom, where are you?? I can only see your hair behind Sam! :)


Parker showed us his cool trick, VERY FUNNY kid.



Parker learned a valuable lesson tonight: Don't lean back in your chair because sometimes gravity wins! He fell right over backwards at Village Inn and smacked his head good. I asked him later if he was going to lean back in his chair ever again. He solemnly nodded his head 'no'. Lesson learned, move on!

We went back to my parents house after dinner for cake and ice cream. My dad had his co-workers over at their house earlier for dessert and here is his dessert table he set up. Very fancy!!


I had Carson and Parker help me blow out my candles and Sam got this cool action shot.


I like this picture of my mom with Parker, Carson, and Dexter. My boys love the train under the tree and Dexter was lovin' that piano!


Parker had a little accident tonight...he learned ANOTHER valuable lesson (lucky little man!)...if you are sitting on the "throne" and you don't push "it" down, you "go" all over your pants. While the pants were in the dryer, Parker paraded around in this lovely tan towel. Curtis thinks I'm going to mess Parker up and make him want to go around wearing dresses from now on. Let's hope not!


And finally, if anybody wants to do a "secret Santa" project, can you buy Curtis some socks? He would really appreciate it!

Happy Birthday...To Me!

Today is my birthday, shout hooray! It's my birthday, do what I wanna!

I have had a very nice 33rd birthday. It started with me waking up to this:


Sam had wrapped some presents for me and displayed them on the kitchen counter with 2 dozen long stemmed roses in the middle! What an awesome husband I have!

At around 2:30 this afternoon I heard the garage door go up. I looked outside and Sam was pulling into the driveway! He took off early so he could come home and hang out with his family. Honestly, that was the best present I could ever ask for! We have been so busy lately we hardly have any time to just hang out around the house. I loved it.

Tonight I opened my fun gifts and here I am displaying them all at the same time. :)


I am pretty dang excited about the Sorel boots. I haven't had snow boots since...probably High School! The past few years when I've shoveled the driveway I've had to wear Sam's boots and they are about 6 sizes too big!

Check out the Willow Tree "creche" Sam gave me as well:


Two years ago Sam gave me the rest of the Willow Tree nativity and it's by FAR my favorite Christmas decoration. I want to just leave it up year round!

Thanks for all the phone calls, emails, text messages, and visits from everybody today. It's been a fabulous birthday!!!