Echoes of Christmas

Tonight we went with some friends to Echoes of Christmas. It's a live musical nativity at Liberty Park. There were six scenes with real animals that the kids could pet. I think it helped the Christmas story "come alive" for the boys. As the wisemen were singing Paul said, "I don't see a star." Sam thought our shepard guide was Jesus. I think tomorrow is the last night, but hopefully it will return next year.

Hunter, Hailey and Paul watching Mary and Joseph

Our Little Conversationalist

Sam has been talking more every day. He now speaks in sentences/phrases more often than not. I'm sure you'd all agree, that kids learning to talk is one of the highlights of parenthood. I even dreamed before Paul was born that he came out talking and I was so excited. I love to have conversations with my kids and hear all the cute things they say and watch them figure out language and communication.
This morning our conversation went like this:
me: "what do you want to wear today?"
Sam: "um, airplane shirt."
me: "I think you're airplane shirt is dirty. What else do you want to wear?"
Sam: "Oh. Race car shirt!"
The boys got some money from great grandparents for Christmas. Paul was talking about all the toys he might like to buy with his money. Jeremy asked Sam what he wanted to buy. I figured he would repeat some of the things Paul had said, but without hesitation he exclaimed, "candy!"
We were driving on the freeway and I stopped at a light at the end of the off ramp. Sam, in the back, asks, "Why you stop, Mom?"
It's too fun. I've been trying for quite awhile to get a good video of Sam talking and I think this'll have to do. If you have boys, you know they're always on the go. Sam likes to ask us how we are all the time. Sometimes he asks other things how they are ("How're you, hand/table/car?") and then totally cracks up at himself. He does love to ham it up.

Birthday Boy

Paul awoke at 6:15 am, ready to open his presents. I have mixed feelings about his present enthusiasm this year. But hey, I guess that's the fun of being a kid, although sometimes it just seems like bad manners.
Anyway, Paul had a great day. He got lots of phone calls and thanks to everyone who made his day special. He played with everything he got and was very excited about his cake, which unfortunately almost toppled over (or blasted off we like to say). It snowed all morning and Jer came home early and took Paul sledding. The kid is a maniac on the sled and pushes it down the hill then runs and jumps onto it.
My mom had a hard time being away from him this year so here's a video for Grandma and Grandpa:

A Rocket Party

The Invitation

The Decor

The CakeThe Birthday Boy

Happy birthday, Paul. We love you!

Christmas Cards

If you haven't already, please send your address to terrina4029[at]hotmail[dot]com. Hopefully I'll get them out this year...

Countdown to Christmas!

I don't know about you, but we are so excited for Christmas to come! Here are a few funny things Paul has said (he's especially clever about trying to find out what his presents are this year):
"Mom, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas even though it's not snowing yet."
"When Sam opens his present he's going to be so excited. He's going to say, 'yea, yea, Woody!' What do you think I'm going to say when I open my present?"
"Mom, can you please just tell Sam what my present is very quietly?"
For good or ill, Paul is still afraid of Santa Claus, but as you can tell he's very focused on the fact that he's getting presents. Last year we convinced him to sit on Santa's lap by telling him he had to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Paul bravely climbed on his lap and instantly whispered his order, then got off. This year I tried the same tactic, but he told me he was just going to write Santa a letter.
I'm having a blast shopping and narrowing down the boys' wish lists. The house is all decorated with the tree up too, there's eggnog in the fridge and cocoa mix in the cupboard, and some wrapping is even done. Let the countdown begin...

Happy Thanksgiving to Me

Here's how I got my early Christmas present:
I suppose I could start with the Christmas of 2001. We were engaged and told each other what our presents were because it was just too hard to keep a secret. Christmas day was a bit of a let down so we decided to not do that again...until this year...
Jeremy calls to say he's on his way home from work and has big news. When he gets home he says he was just kidding about the news. Later, he's looking at the calendar and casually mentions that he took a few extra days of work at Walmart so that maybe I could get a new wardrobe or something big for Christmas. I'm a little confused. But that's his "big news." I'm getting a chunk of cash for Christmas and he couldn't keep it a secret. Well, I did not feel comfortable spending all that money on myself (and we're both disappointed that he spilled the beans cause the way he was going to wrap my present on Christmas was way cool.) That's when I remember something that I've wanted for a long time and that I wouldn't feel so guilty buying. The whole family has had fun playing it and my skills are making a come back faster than I thought. I'm so excited to play "carols 'round the spinet!"

What We've Been Up To

Let's see.
Some family fun:
We went to the Utes basketball game. The boys were better than expected (thanks to getting ripped off at the concession stand). I even wore red while Paul gave me a suspicious look. I figured the rivalry was getting a little out of hand when he said he didn't want me to put him to bed because"she's a Coug and I don't like the Cougs." Ouch. Tis the season. I wish Daddy didn't have so much influence! I had Sam on my side, but he's already starting to sway. It was fun to watch them cheer, "Go, Utes!" with their little fists in the air. Something must have sunk in cause at the football game Paul said he would cheer for the Cougs and the Utes.
We saw our first movie all together at the theater. Wall-E. Sam made it over half-way through before he discovered the joys of running up and down the aisle but surprisingly, it kept Paul's attention the whole time. I would say I owe the concession stand for that, but I think they were generously compensated (again). I owe them nothing!
The boys:
Sam's nearing the dreaded terrible two's. He can through fits any two-year-old would be proud to claim. His latest obsessions are gum (feel free to judge me), repeating the end of everything we say, saying "uh-huh," asking to go for rides in the van and then to drive, not eating dinner especially anything green, running (he's so fast too!) around as super batman, studying DVD cases, escaping mommy's attempts to kiss and snuggle his guts out.
Paul changes back into his superman pjs every afternoon, has discovered the leapster (which he's impressively good at), watches Toy Story and Backyardigans, goes to Preschool, loves to be praised, jumps onto and off of everything, is getting really good at making his bed and cleaning up his toys (although afterwards he closes all doors to make sure no one gets a chance to mess things up), wants to know how to spell everything and what words start with what letters or sounds, etc.
Other than that, it's been the same-old, same-old. We're gearing up for the Holidays (and birthdays).

Happy Halloween

We had a fun and long-lasting Halloween this year. Tuesday we carved our pumpkins and ate the roasted seeds--yum! True to past years Paul had to take a bite of the pumpkin as well. Wednesday was Paul's preschool party and then the ward chili cook-off and trunk or treat. Sam was confused at first and just wanted to eat his candy instead of put it in his bag. He was a good sport and even kept his hat on his head. Today we went to the Children's Museum with friends, paid a visit to Great Grandma and Grandpa, had hot dogs at the neighbor's and went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. This was the first year we've done real trick-or-treating and it was so fun! Paul's little friend Hunter came with us and they ran to every house. Sam spent half the time eating in the stroller, but he didn't want to get left out of the action too much. The weather was perfect. It was warm and breezy at first and then turned colder and started to rain just as we were finishing up. It added to the spooky night.
Since I believe any holiday isn't complete without festive food (plus it's a tricky way of trying to get my kids to fill up on dinner instead of candy) we had orange tomato soup with bat grilled cheese sandwiches. We also made some cute scarecrow cupcakes for Paul's party.
Happy Halloween!

Deal or No Deal?

I used to always just shop at Walmart (or Winco in Oregon) since they always had the lowest prices, right? Well, maybe. I've recently started doing a program called Grocery Smarts (if you live in Utah go to grocerysmarts.com and enter passport "g84csg") which lists all the stores sales plus where to get coupons for great deals. It's been fun and now I'm paying more attention to sales and getting 4 newpapers worth of coupons every week. I got free deodorant, toothpaste and eggs so far. I got 10 boxes of Quaker Instant Oatmeal for $5. I never pay more than $2/lb. for meat or $1.25 for a box of cereal. So I'm getting some good deals. But it also comes at a cost. I usually go to 2-3 stores in a week and figuring out my list and coupons takes some time. The most frustrating is when the store is out of something or I don't read the coupon right. But I'm finally staying close to my $100 a week budget (for household items and diapers too) and building up food storage (slowly).
Sometimes deals aren't always deals. The website lists stars to help you find the best deals, but once I stocked up on some frozen peas for $1, only to go Walmart and find the regular price was $.96. Bummer. Today I tried get a deal on pull-ups only to find the packs on sale that I had coupons for had about half the normal amount I buy. So it wasn't the deal I thought it was, but maybe I got better quality. We'll see.
Anyway, here's a few tips I learned that anyone can use to try to save a few bucks at the grocery store:
1. Look at the beer displays for rebate coupons and deals on meat or pizza (some states, like Utah, don't require a beer purchase).
2. To get the best deals, use store sales (Albertson's has great ones) plus coupons.
3. When something's a great deal, stock up!
4. Buy the "Quick Sale" or Manager's Special meats.
5. Browse the ads anyway--Walmart does price matching.
6. Riteaid has a rebate program and you can get deals and free items too.

Wee Witches

We went to Gardner village last weekend to hunt for witches and take a pony ride. The boys had lots of fun. Paul loved searching for witches, but was wary of getting too close. His favorite was the "bad driver" witch that crashed into the side of a building. Proof that he's a 3-year-old boy. Sam liked getting in and out of the stroller on his own and running away. Proof that he's nearing 2.
We also hosted a Halloween cookie playgroup for a few kids in the ward last week to kick off our Halloween season. We also visited a pumpkin patch (which was a sad disappointment especially compared to our past trips to Lakeview Farms--we miss Oregon!) Upcoming events include a puppet show at the library, Paul's preschool party, trunk-or-treat, and of course Buzz and Woody trick-or-treating, so stay tuned...

Random

Since I've gotten this similar tag a couple times, I'm going to try a Halloween twist.
8 Random Things About Me:
1. I was once a box of nerds for Halloween. It was awesome, but hard to move around.
2. I made Paul's 1st Halloween costume--a dog which Sam wore as well.
3. Usually, Jeremy and I dress up too. We like to match.
4. I used to hide my Halloween candy in random places in my room when I was a kid.
5. I will admit that I eat my kids' candy and then throw a lot of it away.
6. Halloween is not my favorite holiday, by a long shot, but it is more fun with kids.
7. I hate scary movies.
8. Autumn is my favorite season. (Hey, I was running out of stuff.)
I added some pictures from Halloween's past.

Photoshoot

We took the boys up to the temple quarry (which is only 5 minutes from our house, how awesome) to try to get some pictures. Paul sat right down and posed perfectly. Sam was not cooperative. He was frustrated that he couldn't keep up with his brother climbing on all the rocks. They look so grown up in these pictures. If you look close you can see the boogers under Sam's nose and the scratches on his forehead--he's such a boy.

I Can!

So I know I've been horrible at blogging lately. I have no great excuses, except that I've been trying to be more selective with how I use my time. We have taken up a few new hobbies too--like canning--at Jeremy's suggestion and indoor rock climbing--so impressive. We've been trying to savor the perfect Utah fall weather before the dreaded winter sets in. Seriously, fall has always been my favorite season and the weather here has been perfect. We took a trip up to Silver Lake and although it was a little cold and rainy, the colors in the mountains were gorgeous.
Back to the canning. I grew up canning with my mother and grandmother, but this was the first time going solo. It was very satisfying. We got 16 quarts of peaches (from the trees in the backyard) and 10 of tomatoes (also from the backyard). Now I just don't want to use them; they look so pretty.

How Engaging

Today is the 7th anniversary of our engagement and I thought I'd tell a bit of the story for posterity's sake. Jeremy and I met in May 2001. It was only a couple months later when one night as he dropped me off he said, "We should date for a while before we get married." Maybe he was expecting a big reaction, but I only said okay. For us, deciding to get married was the easy part, but deciding when to get married was not. I had 1 year left at BYU in Provo, and Jeremy was going to the community college in Salt Lake. We had very little money and one car, so finally we decided to wait until after I graduated to get married. It felt like the best time. I figured we would get engaged around the holidays, but then 9-11 happened. For the first time I felt fear and uncertainty about the future and Jeremy called my Dad. I happened to call my parent's house right after that and my Dad said that Jer had called, so to me that could only mean one thing!
It was a Friday night when I came up for the weekend from Provo (as usual) and Jer suggested that I pick somewhere to go out to eat. Then he wanted to look at rings again and he pretended like he hadn't forgotten my ring size. He told me that he's called my brother for his birthday so that explained the phone call. By now I'd given up hope of going back that weekend with a ring on my finger. Obviously he had nothing planned. Bummer.
On Saturday we went to the Jordan River Temple with another couple to do baptisms. Afterwards, we walked around the grounds and sat on a little bench. Jeremy started talking about how different I was from other girls (in a good way of course) and how much he loved me. It was sweet, but I don't think I was paying a lot of attention until he got down on one knee and I saw that sparkling little ring. My favorite part was walking back to the car and wanting to scream, "We're engaged!" I was so excited!
Tonight we're planning a family trip to the temple grounds and maybe we'll do a little re-enactment just to watch the boys giggle. Jer, thanks for asking me and if you asked me again today I'd definitely say "yes" even if I might add a "what took you so long!"

First Day of Preschool

Paul missed the first few days of preschool since we were out of town, but here he is on his first day. He did a great job and was very grown-up. He loves it! Grandma and Papa took him out to ice cream afterwards to celebrate (they were in town for the MTC). I wasn't sad, since it's only a couple hours a couple days a week and I've enjoyed spending one-on-one time with Sam. Thinking about Kindergarten does make me teary-eyed, but we still have two years till then. Mostly I'm glad Paul has something to do. Since Jer graduated earlier this year it looks like we'll always have someone in our family in school.

Trip to Washington

The boys and I took a wonderful 10 day trip to Washington. My whole family was there (minus Jer and Steve--the in-laws). It was great to spend time with everyone and see old friends. We went to say good-bye to my brother Dean who will be serving a two year mission in Minnesota. We're so proud of him and hope he has a great time.
The boys had tons of fun since Grandma and Grandpa's house is a little boys' dream--5 acres, a mini-farm, a preschool (Paul got to sleep in the tree fort), a sport court, pool and playground. Too bad we had some cold rainy days spent inside. The following posts are a little picture re-cap.

Fun on the Farm

My parents have a big garden, cows, chickens, pigs, honey bees, and orchard, and of course the riding lawn mower which is great for tractor rides. A little dirt (or berry juice) never hurt, right?

Playing All Day

Paul and Jaxson in their fort. (I couldn't help re-living my childhood.)

Swimming--before the bee stings.

Cousin Time

Paul and Sam had so much fun with Jaxson (my sister's little guy who is 2) and Ehlana who they loved. I can't believe I don't have any pictures of them kissing her.
We had a few of my aunts, cousins, and their kids over for a playdate. It was tons of fun!

Paul and Mackensie reading books. These two just loved being together.

Poor Sam

Sam had a series of unfortunate events on our trip including two bee stings and a few falls. My poor baby. Good thing he's a tough kid.