Jenny & Idaho

A few weeks ago, I rode with my parents and Leslie to Idaho to visit Jenny and attend Austin's baptism. I took Alex with me and left the rest of the kids home. I had fun visiting Jenny and seeing her newly remodeled house. My dad treated us all to a Mexican Buffet restaurant. The food was good. Alex ate a lot. Jenny's daughter Hailey got whipped cream in her hair since she put so much on her dessert. It was funny. Alex was not a happy camper at Austin's baptism, so I saw the baptism part and that was about it. We spent most of the time in the hall. I wished that I could have stayed a little longer. But I don't think Dan and the kids at home would have liked that.

I don't remember exactly when Jenny and I got to be such great friends. I think it was about the time I became a stay-at-home mom. Both of our husbands were still in school. We started calling each other every day. We've been pregnant at the same time for the last two times, even though we didn't plan it that way. We've passed Maternity clothes to each other. When I bought my new favorite pair of jeans on sale, I sent her the link to buy some too. She loved the jeans too. (Comfy, not low-riders or too high).

Jenny and I frequently talk while we are cleaning and cooking. We usually know what the other one is cooking for dinner. I think she's probably a better cook---I wanna go eat at her house again.

Several years ago, when I was finishing up my degree at UVSC, Jenny watched my kids one day a week. I was really busy, and it was hard to get the kids ready and out the door. I would drop the kids off a little before lunch. Often times, Jenny would heat up a burrito or something and hand it to me as I ran out the door, trying to make it to class on time. I really appreciated it. We were poor at the time, so she watched my kids for free. I am really thankful that she helped me so I could finish up my schooling. (And thanks to Mom, Lynne, and everyone else who watched the kids.) Sometimes I look back at those times, and I think it was the "good old days" when we could hang out together.

I'm pretty sure that Jenny is probably going to always live in Idaho, and that Dan and I are always going to live in Utah. So, we are probably going to always be mostly phone buddies. But we love it when we do get to see each other. With her 5 kids, and my 4, it can be quite a madhouse.

I know that I can always call Jenny when I am happy, sad, or just plain bored. So Jenny, thanks for being my friend. I love you!

I love all of the rest of my sisters just as much---I just can't call you all the time because you work or go to school or both during the day.

Anna Sleeping

Anna doesn't really take naps much anymore. However, she is pretty sleepy in the afternoon and sometimes falls asleep in funny positions. As you can see in the top picture, the cat took on nap on top of Anna. Now if you know me, you know that I do not like animals in the house. Our cat Tizzy is always sneaking in the house to hang out. Since she is potty-trained, I let her stay in the house for a few minutes here and there.

I was surprised that Anna could fall asleep like she is in the second picture. I moved her after I took the picture since I didn't want her to roll off the couch.

Funny things the kids have said lately

The other day I made popcorn for the kids. When they got to the bottom of the bag, Caleb declared that he wanted to save some of the seeds to plant a popcorn tree. I laughed and reminded him that it was just a kind of corn. He said he had just forgotten that.

During the sacrament at church, we give our kids a stack of small pictures of Jesus to look at to try to keep them quiet. Anna looked at one where Jesus was on the shore telling the fisherman to come unto him. Anna said rather loudly, "Jesus is just telling them that he doesn't want to go fishing."

Rachel was complaining about winter and how it gets dark so early. I hate it too, and I agreed with her. Then she pointed out something that I hadn't thought about. She said that the good thing about winter is that we can watch the sunrise every morning. In the summer it comes up too early, and she is never awake to see it. She said that we need to keep a camera on the kitchen counter so that we can take a picture of the sunrise every morning.

Caleb the other day said, "So, there's two kinds of chopsticks. The kind you eat with, and the kind you put on your lips". I guess he had gotten chopsticks and chapstick mixed up.

What is it with guys and long hair??

Now, I am not talking about guys with long hair. I'm talking about why do guys like long hair.
As I was admiring my haircut (that I've had for a few weeks) this morning, I said to Dan, "I really like my hair a lot better, don't you?" His answer. Actually, I liked it better long.
My hair is about as straight as hair can get. I would never need to buy a hair straightening iron since it is so straight. The longer my hair gets, the flatter it gets. And the worse it looks, in my opinion. It's not like I have a boy haircut. My hair is chin-length with an A-line.
I remember Jenny telling me something similar after a recent haircut also. Her husband likes her hair better long also.
My mom had her hair really long several times when I was a kid. She didn't like her hair long. But my dad loved her hair to be long.
So, what is it with guys and long hair???

New Years Resolutions

I'm not very good with making or keeping resolutions, but here's what I've come up with:
1. Get my house more organized.
We actually got a head start on this today. We spent the whole day cleaning and organizing. My kids keep sneaking stuff out of the DI bag, so I need to do more de-junking when they aren't around.
2. Remember to read scriptures with the kids more often. After 2 years of reading the Book of Mormon with our kids, not just the kids reader, we are still only at the beginning of the book of Alma. We gotta do better on this.
3. Run a half-marathon, and survive a triathlon.
I am planning on the Ogden 1/2 Marathon. We have a triathlon picked out too. But I'm feeling rather chicken on the triathlon. I went swimming with Mom and Les recently. I am much slower than they are, and I can only swim 10 laps, while they are swimming 20. And that's with stopping after 2 pool lengths. I don't know if I can do it. I'm gonna try. The swimming seems so hard.
4. Be more cheerful and not get grumpy as easily.
5. Be more social. Some days life at home is really lonely. I have gotten out of the habit of being social and inviting people to do things. I need to get out of this rut.
6. Try some new recipes. I really like to cook something different sometime.
Well, that's all I can think of for tonight. I still gotta get the kids to bed and it is almost 10pm.

Christmas

Caleb got a cool remote control spider from Santa. Anna and Alex are actually kind of scared of it. It moves like a spider.

The kids had a lot of fun opening presents. They were excited to give the presents they had picked out also.

Alex loved his new car toy. We've been pushing him in it all over the house since it is too snowy outside.

Caleb dressed up as a shepherd at the Challis family Christmas party nativity

Anna and Rachel dressed up as angels for the nativity for the Challis Party.

It seems like we celebrated Christmas for several days. On Tuesday, we had a Christmas dinner with all of my family. Everyone came, so there was over 30 people. We exchanged gifts and had a good time together. We watched the family movie I made with all of our family pictures. I enjoy hanging out with my sisters.

For lunch on Christmas Eve, we went to the Challis family Christmas party. This is always a big hit with the kids. They get to act out the Nativity and hit some Piniatas. On Christmas Eve, we ate dinner with my family again. This was just a little family gathering. Only those who live right in the area came, for a yummy ham dinner. We didn't do any program or anything this time. After leaving my parents house, we went down to the Rowleys for a family home evening/hymn singing. I actually didn't sing much because I was chasing Alex all over the house, and for some reason I had hiccups off and on the whole day. I just don't sound good singing and hiccuping at the same time.

We woke up on Christmas and had a fun time opening presents with the kids. Alex got crabby since he was hungry, so we brought the highchair in the living room so he could snack while we opened presents. The best thing that Dan bought me was PaintShop Photo. It is like PhotoShop. Its gonna take me a while to figure out how to use everything. I was glad he bought it for me--I'm too cheap to buy such expensive software. After spending a while at home, we dug out of the snow and went back to the Rowley's for a gift exchange and lunch. We had a good time. I have a hard time keeping Alex out of trouble when we go to other people's houses though. We didn't exchange our present yet, since we have George and Lorianne, and they won't be here until Sunday.

Then we went home and had a long nap. I love long naps, but I rarely get one. Actually, the older kids watched our new Wall-E movie while the rest of us napped.

After we got the kids to bed, Dan and I watched Batman Dark Knight. I bought it for us for Christmas (Dan and I, not the kids). Neither of us had ever seen it. I wished that I had just rented it. I didn't really like it. It was too dark and scary. There's no way I'm gonna let the kids watch this one. Maybe we'll give it to someone who might like it.

We had a great Christmas. It is nice now to have the rest of the week to take life slowly and just hang around the house.

Caleby

Caleb can be such a cute, funny little boy sometimes. Last night we were practicing his spelling words for his spelling test. When I do spelling with Rachel, she writes hers down. When I do spelling with Caleb, he spells everything back outloud without writing anything down. Caleb decided to spell all of his spelling words backwards when he spelled them back to me. I thought it was funny. Amazingly, he spelled everything correctly, backwards.
When I tucked Caleb in and listened to his prayer last night, he said such a cute little prayer. In his prayer, he was thankful that our van has cupholders. I had to bite my tongue not to laugh during his prayer. How in the world did he think up that one? I guess I need to be more thankful for the little things like cupholders.
Lately, Caleb and Anna have become best friends. Up until now, there never really played together. Now, they love to sleep in each other's rooms too. All of our kids have their own rooms. Caleb has a bunkbed in his room. You would think that Caleb and Anna would be content to sleep on separate bunks. But no. They both sleep in Caleb's bed. I am glad that they are such great pals. I hope it stays that way.
My nickname for Caleb is Caleby (Caleb-ee). When all of my kids were babies, I made up songs for them. It is their "I love you" song. When I sang Caleb's song, I needed an extra syllable so his name became Caleby. Caleb can be such a difficult child sometimes. But I really love my sweet little boy.