Glenn Beck

Bored Baby...

Many of you live in real places where you can find entertainment on a cold day for your bored kids. Well, I don't, dang it! When the kids are getting the winter-crazies, I don't have a lot of options. In fact, I only have TWO options... the public library or the playland at Arctic Circle! I was going nuts the other day, needing somewhere for Brig to play without giving him frostbite or hypothermia, so Tony packed him up & took him to Arctic Circle so I could have some peace & quiet for a little while. I guess it is sort of like Christmas time where the kids have more fun with the boxes than their toys. Same thing on this day... Brig came home laughing his handsome little head off 'cause he got to wear the sack on his head. Who cares about the slide or the tunnel. He just wanted to put the sack on his head. Oh, what a love!

President Hinckley

Last night as the TV show was interrupted we were watching to show that Presidnet Hinckely had passed away, our entire family burst in to tears. I stood there with my eyes fixed on the screen while I held Brielle, Brikenna, & Brooklyn's sobbing bodies. What a shock that we all knew would eventually come. I'll always remember what a fantastic leader he was. I always loved his cute little cane as he waved it in the air. I thought he was hilarious when he pretended to "knight" Henry B. Eyring at the last General Conference. President Hinckley was so funny & sweet, but also so inspiring & positive. We'll miss him! But can you even imagine the reunion he's having with his cute little wife, Marjorie, as well as with the Savior? Wow... My sister, Tracy, told us that the new age of technology hit ~ & to the credit of the youth of our church. Her son, Andrew (A junior in high school) got a text Sunday night from a friend telling them to wear church clothes to school the next day in honor of Presidnet Hinckley. Apparently the high schools were bombarded by youth in dress clothes today. The rising generation... they never cease to amaze me!

HGTV Dream Home

Well, I'm at it again. Every January, I vote faithfully on HGTV to win myself a Dream Home! It's my only ticket to somewhere warmer... & this year it is in the Florida Keys! I wonder if it is sacrilegious to pray to win it... I'd take alligators & hurricanes over glaciers in my backyard any day!

Cat Food & Marshmallows

My kid ain't no dummy. This is how I found him. Look closely, 'cause he dumped a pile of Lucky Charms on the counter, then proceeded to pick out only the marshmallows! He left all the yucky stuff... I don't even know what it is really called, but at my house we've call it "catfood" ever since my sister, Val, said it looked like catfood. So, my brilliant little 21 month old son, Brig, ate all the marshmallows & left the catfood. Isn't he a doll?!?! What a genius!

25 below...

...And today is 25 below zero...

20 below...

What's your weather like? Mine SUCKS! Woke up to 20 below zero today & school cancelled... How about you?

Family Football War!

This has been an exciting year for football in our family. Tony's San Diego Chargers finally have a seaon worth watching... & Bridger has totally been following the New England Patriots since they started the winning streak (that's how he decides who his "team" is... by who is winning!) Yesterday, for the AFC Championship game, guess who was up against each other? Yip! Chargers vs. Patriots! I know. Some are out there judging us right now for our "wholesome" Sunday activities. But, hey, the 1st Counselor in our Stake Presidency called us at kick-off, laughing, asking how attitudes & tempers were in our household right then. Even told Tony he'd put in a prayer for the Chargers... Funny, huh? Anywhoo~ the kids went & made cheerleading signs & posted them on the entertainment center, the microwave, the front door, & even on their backs! Tony got a nice leather "Chargers" baseball hat, & Bridger got a nice leather "Patriots" hat for Christmas & they were wearing them with a vengence. They were serious. You don't mess with a guy's hat! It was father against son... daughter against mother... sister against sister... & in the end Bridger's team (& mine & Kenna's) came out on top. The Charger fans (ie Tony, Brooklyn, & Brielle) are a bit of poor sports with all their pouting & moping around! Now, bring on the Super Bowl! Go New England! Beat those Giants!

Happy 7th Birthday, Brielle!

Yesterday was Brielle's 7th birthday, & today we had her "Purse-Party!" She invited 8 friends over & we had a lots of fun. First, all the girls decorated composition notebooks that Tony had cut to the shape of a purse & I helped them cover with scrapbook paper. The girls added lots of "bling" to them, & we put on a ribbon handle. SO CUTE! Then, they made bead necklaces (After they decorated their purse notebooks, they had to decorate themselves!) After that, we had a crazy game of high-heel-musical chairs. I think my heels will never be the same... there were a lot of almost-twisted-ankles, but luckily none of the heels broke off my shoes! (What? Concerned more about the shoes than the little girl's ankles? Nah...) Of course, I made her a "Purse" cake (wow, I suck at making cakes...). It's so fun to see Brielle feel so special... to be the center of attention... to unwrap lots of presents! Today was HER day, & she loved EVERY minute of it!

Hotties in Heels!

Nicole, Courtni, Hope, Shaelyn, Brielle, Sarah, Cheyanne, Shaylin, & Averi throwing a bit of 1st grade attitude into these heels!

High-Heel-Musical Chairs!

No birthday party is complete without a wild game of musical chairs. I mean, everybody loves a good game of musical chairs! But have you ever tried it in high heels? What a blasted blast! We're happy to say, no one ended up on crutches after this animated game! (And aren't these cute little toes?)

Here's Brielle & her friends eating cake... Brielle, Hope, Shaelyn, Averi, Shaylin, Nicole, Sarah, Courtni, Cheyanne...

Happy Birthday, MOM!

Today is my Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday, Mammogram! This cute, skinny little woman gave birth to 12 kids (I'd call us beautiful but that might sound conceited... :). She spent her life sacrificing for us, loving us, playing sports with us, & a million other things that I can't even mention without tearing up! I love you, Mom! Happy Birthday! And I don't even have to remind Papa to pamper you today... We all know that is his favorite pastime anyway! You both are the best!

Famous Fans...

Okay, so this one's for Katie... the rest of you that have heard it a thousand times... LIVE WITH IT! It was the coolest night & re-living it gets my heart-rate up to an aerobic workout every time! So, we went to the Keith Urban concert in our matching shirts that my sisters & I designed. I made them on my computer. (The insignia was a Superman sign, but instead of a huge "S" we put a "K" on it & put "Urban Legend" on the sides with some rhinestone-bling around the outside of it. SO CUTE!) So anywhoo ~ this post could be 4 days long if I type up all the details (Yes, it was THAT exciting!) so I will write an impatient, out of breath version: Here goes! Got to concert. Our seats so far away we could almost touch the ceiling. Not happy. Snuck down to good seats while the opening act was still on. Got kicked out. Dang. Not taking no for an answer. Found some med-techs & tried to beg them to get us floor seats. No go unless we wanted to take off our wedding rings... BAD! Devils... Saw cousin Holly! Woo! Hug & kiss her. Sneak back in when lights go low. Keith Urban hitting the stage! Run to empty seats 3 rows from smaller stage. No one kicks us out this time. Keith ultimate blast! We ran to stand at the gate! Now we are FIRST ROW with nothing between us & Keith except a gate, security guards, & 20 feet of blank space! Singing, dancing like we were teenagers! FRONT ROW, people, FRONT ROW! Camera-man comes up & yells, "What's with the shirts?" so I gave him a close up. They put us on the HUGE SCREEN! More than once, apparently! The BIG one that spans from one side of the arena to the other! Brian Nuttle (one of the guitarists) sits on edge of stage & sings to us. The other band members are laughing & having fun jamming to us singing & dancing. Feels like we were the only ones in the arena! Brian Nuttle throws us his guitar pick. I'm pointing at Keith & singing. He looks STRAIGHT INTO MY EYES, POINTS TO ME, & sings, "You are my Better Half!" (Katie, that was no lie! I swear it happened! Ask my sisters!) Then he jams his guitar & twirls, laughing. Me, I think I might have peed my pants at that moment! If you can get high on music & Keith, then I was there, baby! I WAS THERE! Whole concert was a rocking blast. No one rocks like Keith. Country music? Yeah, right! He can ROCK! Concert over, we leaving. Get stopped by LOTS of different people leaving the concert. They want PICTURES with us. We are like, What?" They all said they saw us on the BIG screen a lot. People were trying to buy our shirts off us, too! What? Feeling popular ~ like a better version of high school... Except that I'm 35 now instead of 17. Going to car. Security Guard comes up to us. Says some guys want to talk to us. We flash our wedding rings & start to make a break for the car. YIKES! Security Guard says, "It's Keith's BAND!" We look over. Sure enough... his BAND is motioning to us! We go over & spend half hour chatting with them! They sign our shirts. They tell us they'll get us tickets to Spokane, WA for that weekend if we'll follow their concert. They give us their "MY SPACE" & ask us to post our picture on it. They tell us playing to people who are having as much fun as we were having gives the concerts such a fun energy! They loved us! They wanted to bring us along to keep up that energy! Nothing bad at all, in case you are thinking we are naughty. Nope. Talked to Brian Nuttle about his wife. Talked to Chris Martin (another band member) about my kids. He said I should've brought Brooklyn & Kenna & he'd get us tickets if we wanted. Tempting, but Mother's Gone Wild isn't a show I can be on. Keith had been swept back to his hotel room right after concert, so didn't get to meet him. Dang. But really, the night was so much fun! I can never go to a concert again. Any other would be a total disappointment! And for a pathological liar, this ALL IS THE TRUTH! I Ruud-Promise! (That means my temple recommend would be on the line if I broke that promise! :) Oh... Now do you see why I love Keith Urban? I really AM his BETTER HALF!

Keith Urban's having a baby!

So, here's a few pics from the flashback to our Keith concert last September. The color pic was taken right after he pointed to me during the concert & told me I was his "Better Half". The black and white one is after the concert when we all went to drink slurpees at the local 7-11 & had an animated conversation about when he was going to join our church. Does anyone get the feeling I'm a pathological liar?!? Let me dream, huh?

Okay, so this is a flash-back to September when my sis's (Karmen, Deb-T, Tiff) & my friend, Steph, & I went to the Keith Urban concert in Salt Lake! WooWee! What a BLAST that was! I got to be 18 again for a night, & we were the famous-fans of the concert! But I'm a little dismayed... I heard last night on Inside Edition that Nicole Kidman is pregnant & that Keith Urban is MARRIED to her! I guess I was in denial...I didn't believe it 2 years ago, & I can't believe it now. Hmmm. And I guess he forgot that he's gonna be my #2 husband after polygamy kicks back in! I mean, he's too good for someone like NICOLE! :) I'm WAY better than her! (Ouch! If she ever saw this blog, she'd laugh right out loud!) :) Oh, yeah! But I have TONY... Who needs Keith when I've got TONY! I mean, could you even see Keith getting into the bubble-bath and making Santa-Claus faces in the suds with his baby like my man did? I think NOT! (Okay, maybe just a little...)

My Kid's Polls...

Okay, it isn't hard... It's a simple click of the mouse... It is an anonymous opinion... Can you all perty please vote on my kid's polls? My little Brielle checks hers EVERY DAY to see how many votes are on it. Last week's was a total disappointment for her 'cause she only had 8 votes on it! (Do any of you have guilt yet? :)) The polls are down the sidebar towards the bottom and they change them every week. Mothering... There is always SOMETHING we are trying to fix to make our kid's happy, huh? :)

Scrapbooks, Scrapbooks & More Scrapbooks!

As you can see, I've been putting lots of mini-scrapbooks on here! I got the idea from Callie Beardall's blog and it is so cute that I just can't stop! I've been taking my girls out lately to take pics of them... They are such good sports, for the most part. Poor Brielle has my sensative eyes & getting a picture of her not squinting was a real chore! Bridger and Brig are another story... getting a picture of a boy is not an easy task when they think a cool picture includes things like blood, scabs, & cat's tails! At least they like boy stuff and aren't asking to ice-skate or do gymnastics... :) Anywhoo~ my girls are beautiful little models in disguise! And yes, Callie, I take their pics. And Cordie, my camera is a kodakshare camera 4 megapixels. It's a few years old, but works great for me. I manipulate all my pictures on picasa, which is a free download from the internet. Makes people think I actually know what I'm doing! :)

Joseph & Ashley's Wedding

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Kenner-Benner

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Scrappin' Belle

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!