...and it keeps coming...

Yesterday we got dumped on again. It started last evening around 4pm and snowed most of the night. It is already starting to melt this morning, but howie and I took advantage of the time and built a snowman (thanks jenn for inspiring me to do this with howie, yours with Sammy was so cute). Not bad, considering I haven't built a snowman in YEARS! Howie had a blast in the snow. When I went into the house to get a carrot for the nose and raisins for the mouth, I heard him say, "this is so cool" over and over. We only used the snow on our little patch of grass and we didn't even use that all up! Olivia was bundled up in lots of fleace and sat in her bouncer by the front door. She fell asleep soon after we started. Now we are going to have hot chocolate with marshmallows. You can have some if you are cold just looking at our photos!

p.s. if you want to know how crazy and freaky this snow storm is, Las Vegas of all places, got snow as well! Parts of southern California too. Wild weather.

what is this white stuff??

Yesterday it was above 60 degrees. This morning started out to what we thought was a bit foggy. Wait, not fog, but SNOW! In St. George!! It is fun to see, but we know it won't last long.

These two photos are views from outside our master bedroom window.

the wonder of a child at Christmas

We went to see Santa at the furniture store where we had free pizza pop and a picture with Santa. Howie is so excited about Santa and what he thinks he might bring him for Christmas. But, Howie has always had a love for nutcrackers. Go figure. Don't know why. He got one last year from a friend and begged for me to get him one this year. Yes, I broke down and he got his little miniature nutcracker (four inches tall) for his personal imaginative play pleasures. When we got to the furniture store, the entrance was decorated and low and behold, there stood a giant NUTCRACKER!!! Howie was even more excited that the mouth moved and was not glued shut.

Olivia age 2 months, Howie 4 years old, with Santa Clause 2008

Trimming the Tree

We are enjoying December and the wonderful Christmas traditions, events, friends, family. I just LOVE playing Christmas music all day long. It is fun to sing along while I do the normal daily chores. I even catch Howie singing and we sometimes sing together. We just got our tree up and decorated this afternoon. The boys had a fun time while mom captured the event on film. I love to turn out all the lights and just stare at the tree. There is so much magic at Christmas.

Turkey Day Update

I promised I would tell about Thanksgiving...better late than never. We had an enjoyable day. I spent the morning packing the car so that I could leave after dinner and drive to Wade's house outside of Burley, ID. We spent Thanksgiving with Van and Susan's family. It was pretty small because most of the family spent Thanksgiving day with their other side of the families. Rosie and EJ made it up from Utah and Teniele were there. Our family was pretty small with just myself, Logan, and Becky and Mohammed to represent the children. Of course, my father and uncle's favorite spot is in front of the farm futures computer (see photo). It is funny to always see them discussing farming when they have time off. If they are not farming, they are talking about it. It runs deep in them. A fun item was decorating turkey, sugar cookies in the shape of a turkey. It was a hit with the kids. Rosie, I am glad your kids were there or else it might not have been as fun! I was amazed at your kids' creativity. Fun times.

Oh, Becky had introduced Howie to pomegranates. He thinks they are special treats. The cutiest thing is that he calls them pop-a-granates.

We are thankful for blessings of health, happiness and family. Hope your Turkey day was filled with lots of good food and family too.

7 YEARS

Yesterday was our 7 year anniversary. Can't believe how time is flying by. Tommy had to work yesterday, but we celebrated tonight by eating at our favorite Thai restaurant, Benja's. Of course, it was delicious, it always is. We didn't stay out too late. We were worried about our nephew Emil and how he was doing with the kids since Olivia got four shots today at the doctor's office. We decided not to over-do with Emil, we do want him to get married and have kids someday, we didn't intend for this to be birth control for him. Howie told Emil when it was bedtime, "We're not friends anymore." Boy, he is good at the manipulation thing.7 reasons I love you

7. You make me smile.

6. You help balance me out and make me realize I don't need to sweat the small stuff and the little things matter most (that I don't need to hound Howie as much, that Olivia won't be little forever).

5. You taught me the art of humor, now I am better at it than you.

4. You are a hard worker and put in long hours for our family.

4. You (we) have two beautiful, healthy children that get your good looks.

2. You tell me I am beautiful all the time.

and 1. You have a deep and rooted testimony of the gospel.

I love you Tommy. Thanks for these last seven years and here's to many many more.