The true meaning of Christmas

This holiday season I was feeling a little overwhelmed, and well a little bit cranky. On top of all the Christmas craziness I just got called to the primary presidency (like a week ago!). Well, the other morning I just happened to pick up the december Ensign and read just about the whole thing before I could put it down. The stories brought tears to my eyes. The overall theme was giving to others and being selfless. It really made me stop and think about the "true meaning" of Christmas. Christ gave us the ultimate gift of service. I got excited to serve those children in the primary! It also made me stop and think that I need to spend more time with my family. So I decided to spend the day doing fun things with my kids, and having a day where we could just relax and feel the Christmas spirit. We listened to Christmas music and decorated gingerbread houses, all the while staying in our pj's. I hope you all kind find the time to serve others as well as spend time with your families, for this is the true meaning of Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS!


As you can see Alexis has already sampled some of the candy!

The finished product. Alexis did the whole design, I just did the frosting!

Tommy kept wanting to pull off the candy and eat it!

A party fit for a princess!

A couple of weeks ago Alexis had her fourth birthday. I can't believe my baby is four! Right now she is obsessed with Disney Princesses so naturally she wanted a Cinderella party. I had the girls dress up like their favorite princess and the boys like knights. They decorated crowns with jewels, played pass the glass slipper, and the "real" Cinderella graced the party with her presence. Alexis had a ball, no pun intended! I am surprised I survived it as I had 15 little princess and knights running wild around my house! But it was worth it to see the smile on my little princesses face. Unfortunately my husband was on picture and video duty- so we got more video than pictures- no pictures of the real Cinderella- total bummer!

The birthday girl opening presents in the morning-notice Tommy crying in the background because the presents were not for him!

The party decorations- I made those star wands out of rice crispy treats!

The rice crispy wand

Making jeweled crowns

Alexis' very first real birthday cake- up until now she has been allergic to it! I don't know who was more excited for the birthday cake she or myself (I live for birthday cake!)

Happy Birthday Alexis!!

I'm baaaack!

Ok, I thought I was going to give up on blogging, but what the heck I'll give it another try! (Jamie this is for you!) A lot has happened since I last posted, but I won't bore you with all of the details. I think I will choose a few things here and there and then hopefully continue on! One major thing that has happened is that I got braces- yes folks braces! Man, do these things STINK! As a teenager I refused to get them and now at 28 I am suffering through them for two years- yikes! Oh well, I just keep telling myself the result will be worth it! I'm still debating whether to show a picture as I look pretty ridiculous! Anyway here's what's been happening:

Alexis' first day of Ballet- which she loves! After every class she shows me her new moves.




This is Tommy's favorite thing about Ballet. While we are waiting for class to get over he hides in the middle of all of them!


Alexis' first day of preschool with her buddy Micah- she was pretty nervous, but now she loves it!


ok here is one with the braces! This is at Alexis preschool fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch. we had such a fun time and even got a tractor ride, Tommy was in heaven!



We took the Kids to the Treehouse Museum's Enchanted Forest a week before Halloween. The kids had so much fun, except Tommy couldn't sit still long enough to hear all of the stories! This is where I kept finding him:
On the his favorite thing there- the fire truck!




These are some of the fun things they got to take home from the night at the museum! (giving their best gurrr faces!) They had such a fun time- I highly reccomend going next year!


O.K. there are more pictures, but I think I have to save them for another day. Few, I did it! Man I have been putting this off for so long- It feels good to be back!

C is for candy factory!

The other week my sister and I thought we better get going on our ABC project and took the kids to the Sweets Candy factory for a tour. Yes, we are only on the letter c, but you know how it goes-summer gets busy yada, yada! But let me tell you, we had so much fun! I highly recommend going! I took Alexis when she was about eights months, but this time was so much more fun! First of all you get to wear these awesome hair nets that definitely fulfill your lunch lady dreams! Next you get to watch a little video explaining a little at what goes on at the factory. You then get led around the factory and get to see how the candy is made, and if you are lucky you get to taste some of the candy fresh off the conveyor belts. We came on a good day because we got to taste the orange sticks, chocolate covered marshmallow bears, and candy corn flavored taffy! (yes they make the holiday candies like six months in advance!) I have a killer sweet tooth that has been passed on down from my mother to me and then onto Alexis so- WE WERE IN HEAVEN! The air was filled with the smell of chocolate that permeated into our nostrils! It was like watching an episode of the food network's unwrapped, but in person! You end the tour by taking a spin around the candy shop, and naturally spending a fortune on candy because you just can't help yourself! I think we have finally now recovered from our sugar coma!

The lunch lady hats were a huge hit, and caused hours of laughter!

Tommy, Alexis and their cousins Kate and Jack

I just had to show this picture of Alexis the first time I took her!

can you believe how chubby she was?!

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a great time this Fourth! We started the festivities with the Kaysville parade. Alexis and Tommy loved it! Alexis scored on the candy, mostly because her cousins so graciously shared theirs with her. She wasn't quite fast enough-though she did catch a weird looking chicken thing off the Bukos truck that some crazy lady tried to steel right from her hands, but Alexis held on tight as I gave the lady the stink eye! We then went to Oakridge Country Club for dinner and fun. We even got to ride the golf carts! The kids got a huge kick out of this, and Tommy turned out to be a good driver- go figure! We played so hard that the kids couldn't stay up for the fireworks- maybe next year! But Nate and I had a great view of about three different shows from our front and back yard. A perfect end to a great day!

Tommy enjoying his first parade

The infamous chicken!

Hanging out at the parade

Tom Dog enjoying dinner

Alexis with her Little Mermaid balloon

Crazy drivers!

Quest for the Best!

Today the kids and I made our favorite Sunday treat-COOKIES! I admit I have an adiction to baking cookies. Some people meditate or do yoga to relax-I bake cookies- or brownies or cakes, whatever I'm in the mood for! So today I felt like chocolate chip. I don't have a favorite recipe so I just used the one on the back of the chocolate chips bag. Well I was sorely dissapointed-they came out flat as a pan cake. I have tried several recipes for these glorious cookies and I can't come up with a tried-and-true. You know the cookie that is not too cakey and not too flat-just right. So if all you bakers out there can help a girl out, I would love your favorite recipe! We can even turn it into a competition-the winner gets bragging rights! And I promise I will try them all because cookies are my crack! (just kidding- well maybe not!)

p.s you can leave your recipe on the comment section or email me at bestchocchip@aol.com

the dissapointing result-though they still tasted good, but did not satisfy!

Latest and Greatest (it's about time!)

I have been a bad blogger- shame on me! A lot has gone on since the last post so I will try to catch up without boring everyone!

First of all Tommy has finally started walking! It's the drunken sailor walk mixed with a little prancing of the feet- I love it! He thinks he is hot stuff- which he is!

Next Nate and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 7th. Wow how time flies. I still remember Nate trying to hit on me at Church and thinking he was the most handsome man I had ever seen! I feel so lucky to be married to such a great man, and am very grateful he is such a wonderful husband and father. I love you Nate! I wish I had pictures of our wedding on my computer but our scanner isn't working. So you get a repeat of this picture from our cruise. I realize that we have very few pictures of us together- how sad!

Next Alexis started and passed her first level of swim lessons! She was a little reluctant to go but as soon as she saw her teacher and got in the water her fears went down the drain! She went crazy! She was always asking "what's next teacher?" I was so proud of my little Bobo. Now every time she gets in the bath she likes to show me her new "moves!" Her personal favorite is floating on her back, but my favorite is her awesome belly flop! Tommy was seriously upset that he couldn't get in the water too, but was easily bribed with multiple packs of fruit snacks!

(I don't know if she was more excited about passing swim lessons or getting a treat!)

(Notice the mouth packed full of a whole bag of fruit snacks!)

Two saturdays ago I was able to get together with some of my childhood friends. It brought back so many good memories. I spent many days and nights with these girls playing night games, watching movies- I remember watching "The Labrynth" for the first time at Brooke and Ambers house, talking about boys, trying to stay up all night at sleepovers, the list could go on! It was so good to see all of them, and to see how their lives have turned out. All of them have turned into wonderful women, and I am in awe of each one of them. I really miss those times we shared as kids. I will always have fond memories with these girls. Thanks Brooke for welcoming us into your home. For those girls who live in Utah we should get together more often. And for Amber I will have to settle being updated by reading your blog, but please call me anytime you are in Utah and we can catch up. Yet again I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics of the festivities, sorry!

Lastly we have really been enjoying the begining of summer now that the weather has gotten better (what's with the cold rain?)! Last Friday I bought the kids a blow up pool. They had so much fun swimming in it that after I had dried them off and got them dressed they wanted to just go stick their feet in- you can guess how that ended up!