The Big 12

In honor of Coltons birthday, here's a stroll down memory lane...

3 months old

6 months old 1 year 18 months 3 years old
6 years old
8 years old
10 year old12 years old

Happy Birthday Buddy-We sure love ya!

Little Smokie Love

Landon is obsessed with little smokies! He still talks about eating them at my friend Liz's wedding almost 14 years ago! If we're ever ANYWHERE that is serving them, he's on them like a bad rash. He's been drooling over these party trays at the grocery store. He got talking to a friend who has the same obsession the other night, whose wife also hates them. They decided with the super bowl coming up that they were going to make up a batch for the party.He found a recipe on the internet, and after church today decided he better do a "trial" batch of them. He had bought 4 different bbq sauces to make sure he got the right flavor, and had me doing taste test with them. Cold BBQ Sauce! He whipped up his sauce and put them in the crock pot. He was checking them, and watching them, and tasting them. He was like a kid at Christmas. When he finally decided they were done, he called his friend Brandon, who came running down to get a sample. You would've thought these two never got to eat at home the way they were ooohing and awwwing! GrosS!
Here's Lan mixing up his sauce. Look how happy he is.

Movin' on Up!

When I had Colton, I remember feeling like my heart had grown legs and jumped out of my chest, and was now sleeping in my arms. Now my little heart is headed to Young Mens. Today was Colton's last day in primary. I can't believe it. We spotlighted him, and sang Happy Birthday to him. He is so ready to move on. I remember being that age, and thinking that I was way to old to still be in primary. Now I have a child that is that old. As I sat in the back and watch him, I was flooded with different emotions . But most of all I'm proud. I'm proud of the person he is, and the person he is striving to become. I'm not sure what I did in heaven to deserve him, but I sure got lucky. I know I've said it before, but I'm sure he is a much older, wiser soul than I am.

So good luck Colton. You're starting on a whole new adventure. Be strong. Remember who you are, and what you've been taught. Don't be afraid to stand alone! And most of all, know how much I love you-

Secret Traditions

I have a tradition. If I am ever, for any reason, at a mall with a See's Candies I will go in for a sample, and a chocolate for the road. My girls have caught on to my little secret, and as soon as they know we're headed for a mall they know their gonna get the good stuff. Until now, this was our little secret!

Before we moved to WA, I went on a girls weekend getaway with 3 of my best friends. We stayed in Scottsdale and had a blast. Just before we went home we went out for lunch. My friend Rachel suggested we eat at the Nordstrom Cafe. I hadn't ever eaten there, but it sounded good. I mean, it's Nordstrom, right? It did not disappoint! It was delicious. Fast forward to today.Landon and I ended up at Nordsrom looking for some "good" jeans. We got done shopping and were headed for lunch, and I remember the Cafe! It was as good as I remembered. The tomato basil soup is to die for. I decided when I left, that this definitely needed to become another secret tradition. I vowed then and there that I would never be at the mall at lunchtime again and not eat at Nordstrom Cafe.

Sneaky Sneaky

A little over a year ago I was watching Oprah. She had Jessica Seinfeld on and she was discussing her new cookbook. Maybe you've heard of it. Basically it's about sneaking veggies into your kids diets by cooking and then pureeing them.
Colton is a great eater. He'll try anything once, and usually likes it. The only food that I know for sure he doesn't like is chicken noodle soup. Weird, I know. However, even if I make homemade chicken noodle for dinner, if he's hungry he'll eat it! My girls are a whole different story. They're getting better, but it's not uncommon to have them sit down to eat and the first thing to come out of one of their mouths is "What is that" or "I'm not eatin' that". Many a night have my girls gone without dinner. The rule is you eat what for dinner, or you don't eat. I'm not a short order cook. I fix one dinner, and that's it.

Back to Jessica Seinfeld. So I'm thinking this is a great idea! My kids will be eating tons of healthy veggies, and I won't have to hear the complaining, or have the dry heaving at my dinner table! Unfortunately, Whitley happened to hear just enough of the show to know what that cookbook was about. When she saw it at our house, she went NUTS. She started screaming to the other kids that I was going to put spinach in the brownies, and not to trust the food here anymore! (She's not dramatic at all). I tried several recipes, and they were okay, at best. The kids didn't notice the pureed veggies, but were just so so on the food overall.

I decided to just take the theory, and add it to the food that I make. I started with sweet potatoes in the their pancakes. They loved it. A little spinach in the spaghetti sauce, no one knew the difference.
A couple of weeks ago I bought this cookbook, which is the same idea. In fact, I think they came out at the same time. Anyway, I like the recipes in this book much better. She mixes fruits and veggies in her purees. So it's zucchini and cauliflower (white puree), or blueberries and spinach(purple puree). We had turkey burgers with the purple puree and whole wheat breadcrumbs for dinner last night. When I was mixing up the meat I wasn't sure if my kids were gonna eat it, but they all wolfed them down. Said they were great. And then they all enjoyed a brownie laced with even more purple puree! I love it when I outsmart my kids!

Food Storage Heaven

When we moved to Redmond 4 months ago I would describe our food storage as non-existent! We had nothing. We had lived within 5 minutes of Landon's parents who had enough food storage for all of us, so we never bought a thing. We had a gun and figured we could always walk the 3 or 4 miles to their house. And then we moved. I have had such a nagging feeling that we needed to start getting our own food storage. I mean, I don't think our neighbors would be quite as excited to see us as Landon's parents would be! Feeling overwhelmed, I started reading anything and everything to get started. I finally came up with a plan that worked with my budget, and is getting us some storage. We have so many cans that they don't fit in our pantry anymore, so we starting stacking stuff in the corner of our spare bedroom.

Ever since I've been buying a lot more canned foods, I've been drooling over this shelf reliance can rotating system. It so works with my OCD! However, I decided our money was better spent on the actual cans rather than the can holder! (Okay Landon decided) The other day at Costco I stumbled onto the little ones that hold around 40 cans.They weren't that expensive, so I got myself a few. I am in food storage heaven!!!! Even Landon is impressed. Here are a couple before shots of how I was storing stuff.

The bedroom corner

My pantry
And now...

Whitley was helping to roll the cans in and thought she should model them. So at least we're off to a good start. And don't worry, we have wheat and rice and oats and such too. All though I think my kids could live on Spaghettios and chicken noodle soup for quite a while. And clearly we're not going to be without pop.

You Gotta Love Nike

Today we went with some friends to some outlets that are not too far from our house. Snoqualmie Falls is on the way, and is something that we've wanted to see for a while. When we got to the falls, it was so foggy that we couldn't see anything! We could hear and feel the water, but could barely see 3 feet in front of us. So we'll have to try again!

After the waterfall we headed to the outlets. There was, of course a Nike outlet there. I think there's a Nike outlet at every outlet mall ever! Anyway, Colton's shoes that we got him in Sept. for school were absolutely garbage. I don't know if he doesn't pick his feet up when he walks or what, but I was plain embarrassed by them. So we went in to Nike to see if they had anything he liked. Boy did they have something. Once he found these little beauties,he didn't want to look at anything else. Landon was mortified, okay I was too. But we decided you're only 11 once. I mean when else will he be able to get away with this look (I'm not so sure he's getting away with it now). He couldn't be happier! Oh, and just for the record they're a size 11. Yes my 11 year old son wears a men's size 11 shoe! Can you say Warner jeans???

Mall Cop Moment

We went to see Paul Blart Mall Cop tonight. We had seen the preview a few months ago and the kids have been waiting for it to come out ever since. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but pretty funny. My kids loved it! As I sat there waiting for the movie to start, I realized that this was the first movie EVER that we have gone to as a family that we all wanted to see. It wasn't Landon and I taking the kids to a movie that we were just hoping to get through. Landon and I were actually interested in it! It's really awesome as your children grow to actually be able to "feel" a shift like that. I hope there are many more moments like this to come.

Skinny Cow Plug

As you know, Landon loves his ice cream. And since he is in this Biggest Loser contest he has done really well laying off of it. I think he's only had his 2 cup serving 1 or 2 times! That's record for him.

A friend of ours introduced him to these Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches last summer, and he loved them. I haven't bought them since, because our freezer is stalked with the "good stuff". However, now that he's trying to be a little bit careful, I bought a big box at Costco for him.

I hate ice cream, so I don't eat them. But just FYI-Landon says they're great! And he might be the biggest ice cream snot ever!

You Win Some You Lose Some

One of my goals as a mother is to raise my kids to be hard working, considerate adults. (among other things) And that when they get to adulthood they are well prepared for it.

When my kids were all real little and still at home all day, I wondered sometimes if I was actually going to lose my mind. I felt like all I did was feed people and wipe up poop! I tried to give them age appropriate jobs so that they learned the value of hard work. And I worked on the little things. Make your bed, clear your plate, use your manners-all the good stuff. (and still do) I use to wonder of all of the hard work would pay off when they got older. (not that I'm done, but I've been at it for a while now-almost 12 years!)

Well after tonight's dinner, I think I have my answer. NO. NOT EVER! I can see now that I'm wasting my time. I'm sure that all 3 of these children will leave my house the same animals they were when they got here. We had burping, screaming, arguing, moving their food around in little piles and then explaining that they were full and of course my personal favorite, passing gas. When asked to clear their plates (which also means rinse and load your dishes in the dishwasher since we don't have a dish fairy) not one of them did. Sure they cleared their plates, because we asked them to-AGAIN. But they left them on the counter for the fairy. How many times do I have to explain that she's not real!!!

(not my counter-although not far off)

Just when you start to think that it's nice to have your kids get a little older, they pull off a dinner like tonight! I would just like to apologize now to their future spouses. I did the best I could. Really I tried.

Let the Games Begin

Earlier this week Colton told me that there was a group of girls at school that were telling him that they wanted to know where he lived. He wouldn't tell them, so they kept bugging him all week that they were going to find him! I know how 6th grade girls are but I didn't think much of it.

Friday after school my doorbell rang. Whitley answered it with Colton right behind her, and I heard a group of girls squeal "Colton", followed by lots of giggling! He played it pretty cool, and they didn't stay longer than a few seconds. A few minutes later I could hear him up in his bedroom talking to someone. I went up to see what he was doing and he was at his window, Nerf gun in tow, talking to these girls who were in our front yard! It cracked me up.

Landon called me on his way home, and I was telling him what had happened. His first response when I told him that they had come to the door was "were they hot?" REALLY???? I can see now that I'm in this battle alone! My mom has been telling me for years that I was going to be in trouble with Colton and "the girls" and she was right. But can you blame them??

Well I say, bring it on girls!! Let the games begin.

My Word for 2009

Last January I decided to pick a word to focus on for the year. We had just moved to WA (if you'll recall, I wasn't a bit happy about it) but was going to try to make the best of the situation. I mean, I was already there -not much I could do. Since we had just made our move and everything was going to be new I went with the word "EXPERIENCE". It was the perfect word for last year. We had so many new experiences-some bad, but mostly good. I can't tell you how many times we said "well that was a new experience". So I decided to pick another word to focus on this year. I gave this a lot of thought, because last years' word had been so perfect for me. The word that kept coming back to me time and time again was...

...PEACE

I have learned a lot about life in this past year, and one of them is that when you listen to the Lord, He really does know best. Even when you think you know better, when you look back you realize how wrong you were. I am a very stubborn, strong willed, independent woman, and this concept is not easy for me. To just put my own will aside, and follow His takes a lot of humbling on my part. Okay, on every one's part.

So this year I'm going to focus on being at PEACE with my life and not always trying to change it. To know that I am where my Heavenly Father wants me to be right now, and I'm doing the best I can. I'm going to try to be at PEACE when my kids don't do everything exactly the way I would have done. They are their own people, and it's becoming more and more evident each day. I'm going to try to be at PEACE when I can't get everything done that I want to because there just aren't enough hours in the day. I'm going to even try to be at PEACE with Landons side of our closet. And his side of the bed, and his night stand, and his boxes of "stuff" that he has in the garage that are really important, yet he hasn't opened them in years. I'm going to be at PEACE with all of it. Or at least I'm going to try!

My Tail is Between my Legs

This is an official apology to Landon. I mocked you, and I never should have! I just got home from my trainer, and I'm soo nauseous! My legs are trembling, and I don't even think they will make it up the stairs to shower! I'm suppose to have the missionaries over for dinner, and my house is a hole! How am I suppose to clean my house, fix a great meal, or even get dressed in this condition! Note to self-never make fun of someone when you know darn well that you're as big a sissy as he is!

Exercise Makes Landon Nauseous

When you get older the quantity of food you can inhale and still not balloon up, starts to change. I don't like it. Not one bit. I'm the kind of person that is willing to run my guts out every morning, just so I can come home and eat pancakes for breakfast! This has been working okay for me for years. I just love food way to much, to diet. However, this method only works when you actually do the running. When you take a running hiatus, but keep up the eating, the results are not good!

Landon and I have found this out the hard way. Okay, mostly me. So January 1 I started anew. I worked out with my trainer, and have been back on the wagon ever since. About a week before the Christmas break, a group at Landon's work decided to do a Biggest Loser contest and asked him to be in it. I told him go for it, but that he was just donating his 20 bucks. So he's been the first 3 weeks of this contest without changing a thing. Eating anything and everything, and no exercise in sight. (And you can't count the WII balance games as exercise, sorry Lan)

This morning he decided he needed to try to get serious about this. I've been trying to get him to workout with me forever, so I was in! We got up early to do this 10 minute workout (you gotta start off easy). We got through it, some of us easier than others, and then he went to get ready for work, and I started getting the kids up and eating.

About 20 minutes later, he came down to get something to eat. He wasn't saying much, and had a funny look on his face. I kept asking him if he was okay, and he was just sort of grunting at me. He got down a 1 cup measuring cup, poured himself 3/4 C. of cereal with 1/2 C. of milk on it. He kept saying he was nauseous. Midway through his cereal he had to go out back and get some fresh air! The kids and I were laughing hysterically.

Poor Landon. I asked him if he was going to do another 10 minute workout tonight, and he said NO! He's gonna try it again on Wednesday. Don't want to do too much-

Pike Place Market

Before Bumpa goes home, we wanted to get over to Pike Place Market in Seatte. We finally went today.

We decided it was pretty much just a huge swap meet. Some funky stuff, but a lot of the same stuff.

Kennedy spent the entire time asking for a souvenier, so we finally let her get this penny! Poor thing, she has nothing!

Colton is the only one of the kids that would get close enough to the fish so I could take a picture. The girls wanted NOTHING to do with it! It was fun to see the men throwing the fish too.

Lots of the little places would give out free samples. This is chocolate pasta that Whit and I tried. Not bad. After a little shopping we made our way down to the Seattle Aquarium. This is a huge fish tank that the girls were checking out.
They had a whole bunch of pools where you could touch the star fish. This is my kids listening to a worker tell them about how star fish eat. I'll save you the details, but you get the idea from their faces. I think Whitley might be scarred for life!

New Year's

We had a nice new years eve. Spent most of the day being lazy. We got together with a few families from our ward for a little party. We let the kids come for a couple of hours. We ate and played games. The kids had fun with an Uno tournament, and the feats of strength contests. Colton and Kennedy nearly got frost bite trying to keep their arms in a bucket of ice water the longest. And I think Whitley might have injured her shoulders keeping water bottles out to her sides. But man did they have fun.

After a couple of hours, we took the kids home and let them spend the rest of new year's eve with Bumpa. They watched movies and hung out. We went back over to our friends for some adult games and conversation. We barely even paused at midnight, but had a great time. It's a far cry from the way we use to celebrate new year's. I guess that's what happens when you're old!