35 Years...

Wow! I turned 35 on November 20th! This seems like such a milestone because I have always wondered what my life would be like at this point. I thought I would have it all figured out, and I thought I would be OLD! Well, I am not at all old, but I am figuring things out little by little. I AM living MY DREAM- life is almost like I always imagined it. When I graduated from high school, I got a kind of gag "award" at our senior breakfast. I was given a cute ceramic house and told that I was going to grow up to have "the dream", the house with a white picket fence and kids running around. I'm there (although I have some white vinly fence running around my house instead)! I love my life and wouldn't trade it for anybody else's! I am so grateful for my James, my beautiful kids, my supportive extended family, amazing friends and examples in my life. And, I've decided that now I've hit 35, I don't have to cringe at my age until the next milestone...40!

James and I went out to dinner on Saturday night (without kids) to celebrate. He had actually wanted to a wave rider and ropes course, but I didn't think we would have enough time to do all of that. I found that he had a bag packed with swimming and excersize gear ready to go though! He surprised me with scuba lessons! It's something we always wanted to do when we were younger, I guess I can cross that off of my bucket list!  On Monday, I ate lunch with good friends. On Tuesday, I enjoyed many birthday wishes from friends and family, and got lots of birthday treats! I'm so blessed to have such caring people that made my day special.

Family Pictures 2012

Family Pics 2012 - how to create a free slideshow

We had our family pictures taken up in Mill Creek Canyon about a month ago. Just click on the link to see a full screen of the slide show. Our photographer was Mallory Nicole Wright, her blog is pocketmeetsmonday.blogspot.com. I absolutely love everything about the photos. The setting was breathtaking, the kids were amazingly cute, and Mallory is sooo talented! I highly recommend her! I love having family pictures taken once a year to capture such precious moments. It's nice to have me in pictures to prove that I do actually exist too! I'm usually the one taking the photos. The kids had so much fun being casual and playing in the leaves, and that really shows in the pictures. It's going to be really hard to choose which ones to display in our home.

Happy B-day James!!!

 I departed from the usual ice cream cake this year. I have been dying to make this "7 Layer Sm ore's Cake", that I found on Pinterest. It did not disappoint. Just so you know... it's worth all of the effort for this cake!

 James's brother Dan and his family came over to help celebrate the birthday boy. His daughter Bridgette wanted to play Barbies, and it was really funny watching the daddy's play Barbies and try to change their clothes. They were giving each other clever tips on how to get the tiny clothes on that most girls figure out at 4 years old!

 Jack is the perfect shape for a football. He is short and very round. I just can't get over how chubby he is, and it's true what they say - chubby babies are very happy :)

 We got out some of the baby toys for Jacks, and our kids couldn't resist trying out the excersaucer and Bumbo! They are SO silly!

We wished they lived closer, but it was so fun to spend some time with them all!

For James's b-day we also went to the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake. The kids spent 1 1/2 hours in the creative room making a collage and clay figures. James is quite the sculptor and made a really cool lion at Alanna's request.

 The kids spent a bunch of more time in the "Tinkering Garage" with hands on building projects such as making a marble maze and some remote control devices. We need one of these garages in our house. Our kids would have spent all day there if we let them.

We finished up the day by eating at Tucanos, a Brazilian buffet with all the grilled meat you can imagine eating. I refrained, but I think James got his yearly fill of animal flesh. We got a surprise visit from my parents, and several "mushy" cards for James telling him what a great example and fun guy he is. That just makes him squirm on the outside, but I hope that it all sunk in and that he knows how much he is loved :) 

I was a REAL Wicked Witch for Halloween !

Alanna stirring in her sliced snakes for monster stew at preschool. 

Jackson the fierce pirate (for the 3rd time). This time he was a "dead" pirate though :)

 Blaze as Curious George, his OBSESSION!

Alanna, the sort of chicken (refused to wear the orange pants and feet). (Also refused to wear the witch costume with matching hat and broom that she picked out from the Children's Place and begged her Daddy to buy her. It turned out to be "too itchy".) Whatever!

 Paul, the ghost, for the 3rd year in a row.

Showing off their combined total of 8lbs of loot!

 

And now to explain why I am a wicked witch. I really don't like Halloween *GASP* It's hard for people to understand since I like sweets, but let me explain. What are we celebrating? It certainly doesn't qualify as a "Holy" day. It's a day of greed, or in our neighborhood, several days of greed. I was so done with Halloween before it even got here. I really like our fun family Halloween party of carving pumpkins and playing traditional fall games etc. I don't love the oodles and oodles of seemingly endless supplies of candy being funneled into our house. We had the dance Halloween party (with a brown paper lunch sack FULL of candy), the Cub Scout Pack meeting (where the boys won a huge jar of M&M's for guessing how many, plus each child got a hefty bag of loot), my parents gave each child a bag of candy, the ward trunk-or-treat, and each class party. These were all in the week leading up to the actual day of Halloween trick-or-treating. The greed and effects of food dyes, additives and preservatives took a toll on my kids. One in particular...

 

Which I'm sure is partially to blame for Paul loosing his trick-or-treat privilege. Yes, it's true...I didn't allow Paul to go out on Halloween night! I got a few text messages asking why Paul wasn't with James and the other kids, and lots of questions from neighbors who came to our door and saw Paul at home with just me. James's co-workers asked him all week if I was really going to follow through with the harsh consequence. Oh yes I was! It started with him breaking Jackson's soccer trophy, on purpose, to make Jackson mad. He received a punishment following that, and his behavior just escalated from there. We have a 3 strikes you are out policy here. I set up a consequence, and if you make it to three strikes (3 offenses), you earn the consequence.

 

Paul is the type of kid that isn't about to let us get any satisfaction out of watching him suffer through his consequence. He didn't throw a fit or let on that he felt left out in any way. When the other kids returned home, he just quietly went to bed. I hope that inside he learned a lesson. And, I was pleased the next night when I was at a neighborhood baby shower that several friends congratulated me for following through. Many said they had threatened to take away trick-or-treating the previous week, but just couldn't do it. I was also very pleased to find out that one of Paul's friends in the neighborhood stayed home that night too. Now I can't be the titlist in the "Meanest Mother of the Year" contest :) But maybe I can...because I donated most of that 8lbs of candy to be resold for charity at the Festival of Trees. Ooohaha!



Cornbelly's with Williamson Cousins...

James's brother Dan and his family were visiting from TX, so we all decided to meet at Cornbelly's for the cousins to play. We usually spend all day here, so James was happy to just go for a few hours at night this time. He moans and groans about having to go to Cornbelly's every year, but as evidenced by these pictures, he has a great time. He's just a big kid himself! One of the best parts was sitting around one of the fire pits there and making smores after everyone was all tired out.