Happy Holidays!

To kick off the Holidays one night we made some yummy reindeer cookies! The Boys had a ball putting the dough on the cookie sheet and then each ate at least 4-5 cookies before going to bed. A week ago Nate got us a tree permit so we could cut down our own Christmas Tree this year. So we went up the Mountain on a nice blustery day and had some fun in the snow, spending time together as a family and hunting for a good Christmas tree! We found a great one! Here are all my Boys geared up to go hunting for our perfect tree!
We parked on the road right by this tree and we spotted it as a very possible maybe right from the start, but as we always do we had to go check out what else was out there. In the end we went right back to this one and of course it was the "perfect" tree and no others compared. It was fun hiking around the mountain side anyway. Corbin was playing Star Wars with his Dad as they hiked around. Aidan and I were holding on to each others hands for dear life just to keep ourselves from falling and dragging the other one down with us as we hiked. It was a Beautiful day and even though it was so cold and windy the snow made everything so pretty and calm.

Corbin found himself a hill to roll down while Nate was busy cutting down our tree. He was having so much fun running around and throwing snow he didn't care that he was freezing too!

Aidan had lost a glove and boot to the snow and all his efforts to stay upright in the snow so he and I headed back to the Jeep early and got cozy while we waited for Nate and Corbin to join us. He was freezing from the beginning, but was a little trooper and stuck it out for awhile. Aidan was fascinated with the snow and the little fur trees that were just his size. He had to stop and pat all the snow off each one he saw.

Finally we got the Tree on the Jeep. Nate and I both said we were glad we had this car this year and what a difference it made for going to get a tree. It was nice to have it going up into the snowy mountain and to be able to tie the tree to the top instead of tying it to the roof of our little silver bullet and having to hold on to the string to keep the tree from flying off(that was last years adventure).
After we got the tree home and up we realized that we didn't take a measuring tape with us when we went up to cut our tree. Can we say "Huge" tree! Thank goodness we had already decided to put it up on our tallest wall. It turned out to be no big deal and we love our tree!
Later that night we had our Ward Christmas Party. Santa came before the dinner and as you can see my Boys aren't exactly excited to see him. They both decided to play shy when they went to sit on his lap and Aidan outright refused to sit on Santa's lap. So the only way to get him to even get close to Santa was for me to sit with them. Funny thing, Santa's wife is sitting right behind me and they happened to have this( the one I'm sitting in) extra chair right next to Santa just for the Mom's with non-cooperative kids, she directs you to sit in the chair with your child. There must of been a lot of little ones that weren't real interested in actually sitting on Santa's lap for them to have a set-up all ready for the little stinkers!

Last Friday my Boys and I went down to see Family and get a Doctors appointment in. We met all my Family(except Nate who was home working hard, we missed ya!)in Ogden at the Frontrunner. Then we rode it all the way down to SLC to go see the lights at Temple Square. This is all the Cousins except Aidan who is sitting across the aisle with Grandma. All the kids wanted to have a window seat and they all had a blast riding the train and playing with each other.

Here is little Aidy sitting by Grandma and watching out the window! He was a hoot all night! This ended up being a long night for all the kids and surprising most of them stayed awake all the way back to Ogden. I believe it was like 11:30p.m. when we finally got back in our cars to go home. It was a fun night and I'm glad we were able to be with my Family, we had a good time! We should get together more often! The lights at Temple Square were beautiful as usual and it was neat to show Corbin the Manger Scene and talk to him about Christ's birth and explain to him that's what we celebrate Christmas for. Corbin's talk in the Primary Program we had a month or so ago was "Jesus came to Earth to live." and I tried to explain to him that his talk was telling us about Jesus and when he came to Earth for all of us. I think he kind of got some of it. I felt the spirit and Corbin sure had a lot of questions about everything. Later we had a discussion on how when we feel happy for helping others and being good we are also feeling the spirit tell us we are doing good. This seemed to wrap things up a bit for him. Now he just thinks he's feeling the spirit all the time. Hey, it's a start and I'm not bursting his happiness, I'll take all the Happy little Boys I can get if they just stay being Happy all the time. I hope all are enjoying this Christmas Season and feeling the True meaning in some way! I just want to thank all my family members that pushed the stroller, carried the stroller, and helped keep eyes on my Boys for me the whole time we were down in SLC. I really appreciated all the help and consideration that I was without my Spouse. Thanks for taking care of me and my Boys and making sure we had a fun time! I love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We sure did! We started out by driving down to Nate's Parents on Thanksgiving Morning and the drive was very nice and cozy with the Autumn weather and cloud coverage. Corbin and Aidan were on their best behavior all the way and for the rest of the day, it was awesome and made the day so fun! We enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving feast with many of Nate's Family! Afterward, we sat around and talked and played some games, a nice relaxing day! Later than evening we went up to my Parents home and stopped at Fantasy at the Bay to drive through the Christmas light show along the way. It's a yearly tradition to drive through the Light Show put on by my Aunt LeAnn and Uncle Sonny and we all love it, especailly our Boys! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun family night activity! It's located at the Willard Bay campgrounds and is every night until New Years. The lightshow features scenes from the Grinch,and Night Before Christmas, Dinosaurs, The Nativity and lots of other Christmas scenes, like Reindeer Flight School, and Santa's Toy Shop. We then headed the rest of the way up to my Parents were we spent the night and rested up for the Big Shopping to start the next day! Since I was a loner this year and no one was willing to venture out in the shopping crowds, my Awesome Husband took pity on me and joined me. Nate was great and helped me scope out the real deals! It was really fun to go together and spend the day together too! We ended up having a yummy lunch at Olive Garden(my favorite) and headed back to my parents. Thanks for being a trooper, Nate, I love you! Later that evening we went with my Parents to see the movie Bolt, it was pretty cute! Corbin thought it was totally awesome and Aidan at least didn't have to be taken out of the movie and seemed to enjoy parts of it. Saturday morning we headed out to travel back home. I had to teach my first Sharing Time to the Primary today, yikes was I a nervous reck, but it turned out alright and now it's over for a few weeks! Well we hope all is well in you neck of the woods and your enjoying this Holiday Season!

Early Bird!

Nate insisted on taking my picture with the Bird since I was the head cook in the whole operation. Though I did have good assistants who helped through out the whole process. Aidan was so curious about this Turkey and just sat at the counter waiting for a taste and taking in all the action of cooking it.

This is just a better view of the Turkey. We were proud because this was the first whole Turkey we've cooked and it all turned out great, no major gliches or melt downs! Yeah!

We decided to do an Early Thanksgiving Dinner with just our little family on Friday. Since we had a frozen Turkey from last year that we hadn't used yet and I had to make a ton of stuffing for a few people, we decided to just go all out on it. We roasted the Turkey(stuffed with herbs & lemons and basted with garlic-herb butter), then made stuffing, mashed potatoes & turkey gravy, and green beans. It was so yummy! Nate dared say it was the best Turkey he's ever had. Thanks hon, for being so nice! It was pretty easy once we got the bird ready to go. We used a recipe from Sandra Lee's Thankgiving episode of Semi-home Made. If your scared to try it because of the herbs and garlic, may we assure you it's not a extremely strong flavor, it just makes it aromatic and lightly seasons the whole Turkey. We also soaked the Turkey overnight in a salt, sugar and water brine. We think this kept the Turkey moist throughout cooking it. Anyway it's something to try...we figured it would give us a few days of yummy Turkey sandwiches and so far, so good! We're looking forward to seeing all our Families over Thanksgiving!

Tag...6th Folder, 6th picture, Explain and Tag 6 Others.

O.k when I pull up my pictures in one place this would be from the 6th folder, 6th picture. Here Corbin and Aidan are stuck in the snow. This was last year and I was the one who put them in the snow. They were having fun and loved the fact of being stuck!
When I pulled my pictures up from another place this was the 6th folder, 6th picture. This was Corbin 1 month before he turned 2 years old. And yes he can fall asleep anywhere still today. He must of just crashed on our couch while watching a movie.
Sorry, I just had to post these ones too because they were right next to the one above. I first found this cake container emptied on the Kitchen floor. Then.......see below...I found this little Rugrat having a nice before bedtime snack on our couch. He was might proud of himself and yes he finished the rest of the cake off by himself. It was just too funny! Oh, the things Kids do! You do have to hand it too them they are pretty smart especially when problem solving for themselves. Corbin wanted cake and so he figured out how to get it on his own, since Mom was busy he just helped himself to it.

I am tagging, Janae, Harmony, Marcie and anyone else who would like to share pictures!

Corbin's Primary Program and Jo's New Calling...Yikes!

First off Last weekend(2 weeks ago) we had a good visit from Papa and Grandma (Nate's Parents). The Boys love it when anyone visits especially Grandparents! We took them to see the Dinosaur Museum and they took us out for Chinese. They also helped watch the Boys, did my dishes and helped Nate put up a new gutter so we don't get a shower every time it rains and we walk through our front door. Thank You for all your help and visit! This is a picture of the Boys and their new invention "Tote Robots"! This was some of our finest entertainment!

That Sunday was Corbin's Primary Program and he was so excited to get a chance to give a talk and sing to everyone! He even memorized his part which was, " Jesus would come to Earth to live." I was impressed with him and all the Sunbeams for doing such a great job. They also sang the 1st verse of I'm a Child of God as a class by themselves, which they did awesome. Then they had to stand quietly through 2 verses sang in Japanese and German by older classes. Then the Sunbeams sang the 1st verse again by themselves. I was amazed that most of the Sunbeams had their parts memorized and new most of the songs by heart that we sang on the program. Anyway I can't say that it wasn't a hard job for all those cute little Sunbeams to sit reverently up on the stand the whole Sacrament meeting. Lets just say they did try to be good! Bottom line they really did great for what was asked of them! And I'm proud as punch of Corbin as it was his first program and of course what Mom wouldn't be proud of her handsome little Sunbeam! Awesome job, Corbin!

Aidan did a great job of keeping his Dad awake and alert through the program as they watched from the audience. Aidan was a very good boy too and didn't give his Dad much trouble. Also Aidan has decide he likes Nursery again and has been going and staying without fits for about a month now! Way to go, Aidan! I love my Boys!

Well now for the shocker....I just got a new calling as the 2nd Counselor in Primary as of Yesterday! Can we say Deer caught in headlights and scared to death! Lets just say I had no warning and clearly no inspiration for or about this. I was so close to crying I had to wipe a few tears, sniffle and tried hard not to scream and run. I was asked to meet with one of the Counselors of the Bishopric right before church and then they announced it in Sacrament meeting right after and set me apart right after church. I was doing o.k. as Corbin's Primary Teacher and enjoying it! I know this is probably my punishment for not always agreeing with the Primary Presidency and their solutions to problems. So I guess I will do my time humbly. I'm scared to death about doing this and clueless as well! Not in a million years would I want to do this calling or any Calling in any Presidency( I know being this honest will come back to haunt me, but it is the truth). I do love the Primary Program and I love all our Kids and being able to still be there with them and learn from them makes me excited to at least give it a try! I figure I will give it my best shot and even if I fail miserably I at least gave it all I had! I know I'm probably complaining and taking this way to hard, and I guess I'm sorry for being a whiner. I just have had a lot going on and when I just thought I had things starting to get under control this just threw me over the top of my manageable stress load and what I consider way beyond. Anyway enough throwing myself a pity party thanks for listening and sorry you had too!

Oh one last funny thing. I had my first Presidency meeting today and I was trying to explain to Corbin on the way there why I had to go to this meeting. I tried to explain that I wasn't going to be his Primary Teacher anymore, but I was still going to be in Primary with him. All the sudden I hear sniffling coming from the backseat, and I asked Corbin what was wrong. His reply through the sniffles"I'm (sniffle) not going (sniffle) to cry for you(sniffle, sniffle, sniffle)." If that wasn't a heart breaker! Of course it made me smile! I then explained to him that I just wouldn't be coming to class with him but we would still be going to Primary together. He was still sniffling but said that, that would be o.k. Then I got the 20 questions why and why not. Oh the curiosity and logic and innocence of little children, don't you just love 'em!?

Yummy Food and Haircuts for the Boys!

I finally got the chicken done right! (Don't mock how I hooked the wings, it seemed to work just fine even if it's not the traditional way.)I've attempted to roast several whole chickens and the result is they usually turn out o.k but not great and not usually a flavor we're dying to try again. This time it was pretty yummy and it looked good when it was done, it's definitely an improvement! This was an easy recipe to follow. I got it out of a Taste of Homes Thanksgiving magazine. Here's the recipe if anyone wants to try it:

GARLIC-ROASTED CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES

1 5-6 pound Roasting Chicken

4 Tablespoons Butter, (softened&divided)
15 Garlic cloves, halved

1 can Chicken Broth

1/4 cup each olive oil and lemon juice

1-2 Tablespoons dried Oregano

1 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

10 red potatoes cut into chunks

2 cups baby carrots

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1-Rub inside of chicken with 2 Tablespoons butter. With knife cut 16 slits all over chicken and place halves of garlic cloves into slits. Put chicken on rack in roasting pan and tie drumsticks together. (I sliced a whole lemon up and put some pieces inside the chicken and left some out around the chicken, it just added to the fresh lemon flavor)

2-Put remaining garlic cloves around chicken in pan. Pour half the chicken broth over chicken. Combine oil and lemon juice and pour half over chicken. Rub remaining butter over outside of chicken. Combine oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and sprinkle half over chicken. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

3-Take Chicken out and add potatoes, carrots and onion to bottom of pan. Drizzle with remaining oil and lemon juice, and chicken broth. Sprinkle with remaining oregano mixture. Then cover and bake for 30 minutes more. Baste chicken and uncover and bake 45-50 minutes longer. Until a meat thermometer reads 180 degrees when inserted into chicken. Juices can be thickened and made into a gravy.

We served our chicken with green bread....I just thought I'd post a picture of what it looks like since I gave the recipe out earlier without a picture. This is really yummy too and my Boys like it and eat it up!

Haircut time! It was time! Our Boys were getting kind of shaggy! And as usual Mom cut their hair too short. I used a #6 for crying out loud! Every time I cut Aidan's hair it looks like he got buzzed and Corbin doesn't look much different. Oh well! That's what ya get for a free haircut, right?! It all grows back and they won't need another hair cut for a while.

Oh, Thanks Mom the Soft Scrub cleaner did the trick for our bar stools! It took all the marker, right off with just a bit of hard scrubbing. That stuff works magic...not the cheapest stuff on the shelf but for what it'll do, it's worth having a bottle under the sink.

Happy Halloween and all it's Craziness!

Here is how are Happy Halloween Day started....While I was taking a shower and my Boys were suppose to be watching cartoons....Aidan couldn't contain his excitement for the day any longer and as a release he decided to paint a mural on our stools with a sharpie! How lovely Aidan, what an Artist you are becoming! He was pretty proud of himself up until the spanking he got. And yes sharpies are pretty permanent since I haven't found anything yet to get it off, besides paint thinner and I'm not sure I'm that desperate to re-varnish my stools after I'm done. Soon after this incident I got the Boys ready in their costumes and we went to Nate's work party and had lunch with him. Then we were going to go to Corbin's Tumbling party, but the little tike's were already pretty worn out so we went home and took a cat nap. Then we got up and ready again in costumes and as soon as Nate came home from work we headed out to the Rec. Center for a Mayor's walk and Carnival. After that we went home and went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and passed out treats to any tricker-treaters that hit our house. Then we went and got some Chinese Noodles and went to the Hotel ( Holiday Inn) for the night. The Boys had an awesome day and we all were happy and having fun! What a nice Halloween! And I have to say I think the little nap in-between activities really helped make it a better day. I do feel a bit bad we missed the Tumbling party because of the nap....but I'm sure we weren't missed much, and Corbin didn't even notice we missed it.

Here are my cute little Spookables! They had a wonderful Halloween and loved getting out and trick-or-treating!

Corbin as Spider-man! He was a pretty good Spider-man and even played the character all night long! Yes, we had to call him Spider-man too. It was fun to see how he interacted with other kids that were Batman or Superman, etc. They had all sorts of conversations and role playing back and forth. It was pretty funny and entertaining!

Ahoy Mateys! Aidan was an adorable Pirate and loved the attention he got from it. He was even trying to growl like a Pirate before the night was over. He was all for trick-or-treating when he figured out there was candy involved. He wouldn't talk to anyone though, not a big surprise, but he was pretty cute anyway!
First sorry for the sideways picture, for some reason my computer decided this was the only way it would upload it. I tried fixing it and over correcting it and all sorts of stuff and it still uploaded it sideways. Here we all are at the Mayor's walk and Carnival at the new Rec. Center. The Mayor's walk was around the building and as they went around they got to trick-or-treat from any local businesses that were participating. The Boys had a blast and had a whole stash of candy by the time we went home.
Here's my 2 favorite Boys...My Boys!!! This was just this morning, they looked so handsome and cute ready for church I had to have Nate take a picture. And we had a break-thru at church...Aidan stayed in Nursery the whole time without crying or going into panic mode when Nate left him in there! Hooray for Aidan....Great Job staying in Nursery!!! This is the first time he's stayed in there without problems in like 4 months! It's a huge break-thru for us and we are so happy Aidan did so good! Corbin and Aidan were good Boys during Sacrament meeting, but for some reason Primary is just tough for Corbin and the other Sunbeams. We have been practicing for the Primary Program coming up. Corbin means well to try and be good, but it's just plain hard to sit still in your seat and watch the practice of the Program going on for an hour when your part was at the beginning and now you just have to sit and wait it out till primary is over. I'm Corbin's teacher and it's been hard on all those little Sunbeams, but I've been proud to watch them get up and sing their little hearts out when it's their turn and to get up and say their talks with no problems. But until this Primary Program is over I think we have little chance of having those kids sit still and behave, I'd like to hope though for every one's sake and my sanity!