Chinese Food

One of my favorite Christmas movies is "A Christmas Story". In this movie, Christmas dinner is ruined when the neighbor's dogs get in and eat the Christmas Turkey. To solve this problem, the dad takes the family out to dinner and of course the only place open on Christmas day is a Chinese restaurant. About six years ago while watching this movie I had the idea-we should eat Chinese food for Christmas. So, that is what we eat on Christmas-Tiny Spicy Chicken, Ham Fried Rice and Fortune Cookies. Yum.

Pickleville Christmas

We went to the Pickleville production of "Santa's Party" at USU. We went with Curtis and his family and Kile's dad. After the play the kids got to see Santa. Here they are with their cousin Cody.

Three Favorites

These are my three favorite Christmas decorations. Homer Claus is my favorite for two reasons. One, I got a screaming deal on him. I bought him one January at an after Christmas sale. Two, it was an attempt to get Kile excited about putting up Christmas decorations. Although he did not get as excited as I would have hoped, Homer is one thing that I can always count on getting put up.
The Santa Christmas card is another favorite. Kile's Aunt Faye cross-stitched this for us many years ago. She passed away when Kiley was a baby, so this is a great way to remember her during the holiday season. It sits on our piano in the same spot every year.
Now my most favorite! The Santa hanging on the tree air freshener has been with us for 18 years and is my very favorite Christmas decoration of all time. When Kile and I got married we lived in a basement apartment in Logan. In the corner of the apartment, there was a plant hook hanging from the ceiling. I don't remember it smelling bad in the apartment, but for some reason Kile hung this tree air freshener on the hook in the corner. When Christmas time rolled around Kile clipped this little Santa onto the tree. We laughed and laughed it was so funny.(probably just to us) Anyway, this decoration has been" beautifully" displayed each year in our home. It hangs on the ceiling fan in the front room. It is so funny to see the look on people's faces when they see it and ask us about it. I love to retell the story of how this decoration came to be.

Four Wheeling Fun

This actually happened about 4 weeks ago. I am just getting around to posting it. Anyway, we went four wheeling with the Lundahls at Franklin Basin. It was a blast! At lunch time we stopped to eat (see me with a mouth full of food) and Eric built a fire. I hate snow and winter, but this kind of thing I can really get into.

Happy Birthday Kiley! 12/12/08

That's right Kiley had a birthday and now she is 14 years old! I'm not really sure how it happened so fast. Her day consisted of new clothes, dinner at Firehouse, a school dance, and a sleepover.

Merry Christmas!

Season's Greetings from Kile and all of his buddies at the district office! They dressed up in their "Christmas Best" and sported some sweet mustaches for their work Christmas party. They are hot! Wouldn't you agree? Too funny.

Rocker Destrie

Destrie got this drum set for his birthday. One day when I was getting him dressed after his bath, he said he wanted to be like the "naked" drummer on rock band! For those of you not familiar with rock band, there is a drummer guy that you can choose to be who is shirtless. It was so funny to watch Destrie as he drummed.

Why?

Another winter season is here and once again, I have lost my voice. It happens every year at least once, usually twice. Oh well- one down and one to go.

Yeah Destrie!

Destrie has had zero desire to use the potty. This has been a source of contention at our house lately. I have always heard that boys are harder to potty train than girls and I have found that this is so true. Anyway, Destrie finally told Kile that he doesn't want to wear diapers anymore. We spent all of Thanksgiving Day potty training. So, several treats and countless trips to the bathroom later, I think he's finally got it! I hope. I am really not in the mood to be changing diapers anymore.

Happy Birthday Destrie! 11-11-08

Destrie turned 3 on November 11th! He's still not sure how old he is-he tells everyone he is 5! He is trying to grow up even faster than he already is. He really wanted a cheeseburger cake for his birthday. I have no idea where that came from- but I figured out how to make one! The other thing he really wanted was to go to Chuck E Cheese's. He had a lot of fun.

Charlie bit me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

The kids really enjoy this link.

Last night I went and saw Twilight with my mom, my grandma, and a few of my friends. I had been waiting for this movie for a long time and was so excited that it was finally here. It was such a good movie and a lot like the book. I loved it and I can't wait to buy it when it comes out!!! If anyone has seen the movie yet, comment about what you think!

Anniversary

On November 3rd, Kile and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary! This means that we have been married exactly half of our lives!(now you know how old we are.) To celebrate, we did the Cache Valley Get Away Package. This was the best deal ever. For about $100 we got a room at the Crystal Inn in Logan. We had an in room Jacuzzi, the hotel served a lite dinner, and we had breakfast the next morning. With this package deal, you also get a gift certificate for dinner at your choice of 5 different restaurants. We saved this and will be using it later. It was a relaxing get away with out going far and such a screaming deal! Anyway, Happy Anniversary Babe-I'll love you forever.

Happy Halloween

This is Madee and Destrie before we head out Trick or Treating. We went to Sizzler first (kid's in costumes eat free). Kiley refused to dress up to go dinner. She was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz this year. Trick or Treating was awesome because the weather was so nice.

Lady Bugs

We go to Snowbird every year the second week in October. It is tradition for us to ride the Tram to the top of the Mountain. Several years ago, Kile discovered that there were lady bugs all over the place. You just have to turn over a few rocks to find them. It is really cool to see so many all together. So, every time we ride the Tram we always search for lady bugs!

Snowbird 2

Snowbird 1

Kile's Birthday- October 11th

A Frightful Night

Last Thursday, me and a few friends went to stay the night at my Grandma and Grandpa's house in Clarkston. I wanted to go in October because Clarkston is said to be haunted by the "City Creek Woman". Legend tells it that the City Creek Woman haunts all of the people of Clarkston. We had Leroy Goodey come and tell us all about her and all of the things that she did to the people of the town. Some of the things that he told us was really creepy!!! I believe in the City Creek Woman and all of the things that she does. Another reason that we stayed in my Grandma and Grandpa Godfrey's house, was because in that house is supposed to be something called the Lady in Black that haunts people and turns lights on and off and all kinds of really weird stuff. My mom and all of her siblings say that they have seen her and that they've seen stuff that no one can really explain. I thought that it would be really fun to go sleep in their basement where the Lady in Black lived and watch scary movies. So we did and it was a lot of fun. I wish that the City Creek Woman or the Lady in Black had showed up but for some reason the decided to leave us alone for the night. Maybe next year we can do it again and they'll come to visit!!!

A Jelly Doughnut Can Be Soooo Good

Destrie just had a jelly doughnut. I love the messy face. He said he was a vampire!
He is wearing his new favorite hat. Grandpa Hal gave it to him on Tuesday and he has had to wear it every day since. He even wears it during his nap. We do draw the line at bedtime though!

Our Missing Child

Kiley has been noticeably absent from our blog. Here she finally is!! She got her braces off 2 weeks ago.

This was spirit day at her school. Go SkyView!

Let There Be Light

So, yesterday was a pretty good day. I finally have electricity in my preschool! We have LIGHT now and there will be no more having to use extension cords to run the computers and my music. Thank you so much to Cole Richards for coming and getting this done for us. And most of all I need to thank Kile, he has worked so hard making this all come together, not to mention making it happen financially. Things are really beginning to come together and I believe I can see the LIGHT at the end of the tunnel.
I have to admit I have been a little bit grouchy lately. I have been a pessimist and probably not very fun to be around. There has been a lot of drama going on lately and my house is a mess and I am behind on the laundry and the list goes on..... Last night we watched part of the movie "Multiplicity" starring Michael Keaton. If you haven't seen the movie, Michael Keaton's character has himself cloned so he will have more time to enjoy life and still be able to get his never ending list of things done. Kile and I decided that we would need probably 5 or 6 of him and at least 3 of me to get everything done!
Much to Michael Keaton's dismay, even with 4 of him running around, things don't really get any better, in fact a lot of things get worse. Watching this movie, I had a bit of a "LIGHT BULB" moment (you know the thing Oprah talks about all the time). Anyway, this guy in the movie was so stressed an overwhelmed (just like I have been feeling) that he couldn't be happy with himself. So I'm watching this movie thinking, "WOW, this guy feels like I do ." By the end of the movie everything got figured out and was o.k. I realized that I need to just chill out and do the best I can and not get so stressed out and be so grumpy. So, I resolved to start today anew and just be happy and enjoy life, even if my house isn't as clean as I would like it to be and things that should be done are not.
There's always tomorrow and life is too short to spend it in the dark.

At home spa treatment!

Cool Dude

Destrie is practicing every day and is getting pretty good at driving his new 4 wheeler.

American Girl Doll

Madee finally got an American Girl Doll-she is so happy!
Madee is thinking about getting a perm so her hair will look like it does in this picture all the time. What do you think-curly or straight?

:-) Yeah!

Last night Kile got my clogged bathroom sink fixed!!! Things are finally starting to get back to normal around here. We (meaning mostly Kile) have worked all summer. I think it's time we had some fun. We have a Lagoon trip planned and Snowbird is coming up in October. I would also be really happy if we could "leather up" and go on a bike trip. Hopefully we can squeeze that in before the weather gets bad.

A work in progress

This big gravel pile is tons of fun for all the kids. I love Madee's sculpture.
These pictures were taken on September 14th.
Our nephew, Nick and his friend Mike came at 7:00 a.m. on September 16th (today) and did all the cement work for the sidewalk. I will have pictures of the new sidewalk when the forms are taken off tomorrow. Now we can start putting our yard back together! Now if we could just get the electrical work done for the preschool.....

Candy Coma

A little too much candy and a little too much fun on a Sunday afternoon! The wet spots on the pants are pink lemonade spills-(not pictured)

Destrie's New Hair Cut

BFS

Bowling for Soup is currently my favorite band. Their music is something we can all agree on in our family.

Too Busy

Hey Everyone,
I would really like to start doing something with this blog. Currently we are spending all our time trying to get the preschool completely finished. I am frustrated because my yard is a mess and things are not happening fast enough for my liking. Also there are so many things inside my house that need to be done- a short in my garbage disposal, a clogged bathroom sink, a broken piano bench. I guess I need to learn how to fix these things. Kile is working as hard as he can and doesn't have enough time to get all this stuff done. Anyway, sorry to vent like that - when things are less crazy around here I am going to learn how to post pictures and make my blog cute like everyone elses!!