Gingerbread Men

Last Tuesday, I met up with Traci, Tavi, and Brynn so that our kids could attend a special story time at the library and decorate gingerbread men afterwards. Brynn brought her newborn twins, and we were all so excited to see them!spreading the frosting and adding candy to the gingerbread men

Jon's messy face: proof that he did more than just decorate his cookie! Emily saying "cheese" and showing me her finished gingerbread man
Emily and Etta reading a story together
Little friends holding hands: Eston, Elle, Emily, Etta, and Sammie

(and Jonny running away from me...yes, it's true, that's how I've been able to keep the pounds off...chasing after him!)

Talk of babies

With many of my friends being pregnant or having had a baby lately (or two babies in Brynn and Darcy's case), there's been a lot of talk about babies in our home. Emily is obsessed with babies!

Whether she's carrying her baby doll around the house...

nursing her baby...

or stuffing a baby doll up her shirt and telling me she's going to have a little tiny baby soon...it's just funny how much my little girl loves babies! She's even started asking us when we're going to have another baby.

So you can imagine how happy Emily was to find out we were going to visit our friends, Carlos and Janese, and their baby boy, Orden. We drove down to Provo a couple weeks ago and brought some homemade Spinach Lasagna for all of us for dinner, and then we all admired little Orden. What a cutie!
My baby boy, who's now 20 months old, is hardly a baby anymore and was climbing on top of the furniture and running around the house...because that's what he does best. :)

It was fun to see Wade holding a newborn again and both of my kids so intrigued by this little one. Thanks Carlos and Janese for such a nice evening and for sharing your son with us for a little bit. We really enjoyed it.

Who's influencing who here?

Wade and I feel pretty lucky that Jason and Kristal Joy have moved to Salt Lake right by us. They have been such good friends to us since we lived next door to each other in St. George four years ago. A couple weeks ago, we watched their girls for them while they went on a date.
The funny part about it was that Jonathan and Sophie were influencing each other the entire time! Within five minutes of Jason and Kristal being gone, Sophie climbed up onto the kitchen table and Jon was right behind her. But then a half hour later, Jon was the one in the lead, climbing onto the coffee table and using it as a springboard to jump onto the couch over and over again.

Then Sophie climbed into Jon's crib and Regan, Emily, and Jon followed her example. What funny kids!

How can you not love these smiles? Happy day!

Thankful ABC's

I love this time of year! It makes me think about those things in my life that I'm particularly thankful for. Here are a few of them...

• Autumn
• Bed to sleep in
• Children
• Dogs and other animals
• Emily
• Family and Friends
• Gospel truths
• Holidays
• Increase of knowledge
• Jonathan
• Kindness
• Laughter
• Moms, particulary mine
• Naps
• Our Savior
• Primary Music
• Quilts to snuggle under
• Reading
• Sisters
• Temples
• United States of America and the freedoms we enjoy here
• Vehicles
• Wade
• X-rays and other medical wonders
• You!
• Zions Bank where Wade works hard to support our family

And here's some fun ones I couldn't live without either....

• Air conditioning
• Blogging
• Chocolate chip cookie dough at midnight
• Digital camera
• Exercise...it just makes me happy
• Free stuff
• Girls Night Out
• Holy cow! Gas prices have gone down!
• Ice-cream
• Jon's silly facial expressions
• Knock-knock jokes Emily tells
• Lasagna
• Mini snickers
• Nintendo to play when I was a kid
• Ownership of a cell phone
• Pork Salad at Cafe Rio
• Quiet time at our house
• Running with a friend
• Skinny jeans I can finally fit into
• TV shows and movies that make me laugh
• Underwear
• Vacations
• When Em pees in the toilet and not on the carpet
• X-tra hugs and kisses when I need it
• You giving me a present on Dec. 18th ;)
• Zipper on my winter coat because it gets cold here!

Intense Game

Wade really wanted to attend the BYU vs Utah game because this is his last semester at the U, therefore it's the last time he can get a free student ticket to the game. :) So he got us tickets, and we were excited to go!

Here's our family dressed in red to support the Utes. Thanks again Traci for watching the kids while we were at the game!Introducing the University of Utah football team

Here we are enjoying the actual game, but frustrated by the surroundings. We knew the Utah fans hate BYU, but it really was awful coming from both sides...just an ugly hatred from the fans that is sad and immature. We both have family and friends who have attended BYU, and I was going to attend school there. It's an amazing university, and we cheer for them when they're playing other teams, but of course we cheered for Utah at this game because Wade goes to school there. We tried to ignore the swearing and the fights and just focus on the game, which was intense and definitely entertaining.

At half time, I LOVED how they had the pep bands from both schools perform a patriotic song together, while this huge American Flag was waving. Despite the dumb feud between the schools, we both celebrate our country's freedom, and I think that's just a little more important than a football game.

Adults Only!

Last night, Wade and I had a blast hanging out with his family! His Aunt Sherilyn planned a party for all the cousins, where only adults were invited. I love my kids, but it's really nice to just relax and talk and laugh the night away with other adults. Do you know what I mean? I have really bonded with some of Wade's cousins, especially Britni, who couldn't be there (we missed you, Brit!) They have all been so sweet to me.

Back in February of this year, Wade and I spent a weekend in Paul, Idaho, with some of his cousins. Tyrell and Dallas have created this ramp coming out of a tall tree, and the boys all went snowboarding down that ramp again and again, while the girls hung out together in the house, with the kids asleep. I even tried sledding down the ramp once, but since it's so steep, it was freaking scary! We had so much fun though that I think we'll make it a tradition! What do you think, Rose and Cecilia? :)

I feel so lucky to have family! I'm especially grateful when they bring treats to a party like this one. Thanks Gwen and Cory. I think I had at least 4 of these babies. Mmmm good!

While we were at the party last night, Sherilyn's 13-year-old daughter, Danielle, watched Emily and Jon for 5 hours at Wade's mom's house. When we returned back to the house with Mom and Keith, the kids were sleeping so soundly, that we didn't want to wake them, so we just slept over. Then Mom made us an amazing breakfast the next morning. We don't ever get to do that with them, so it was a lot of fun. What a good time...I'm still smiling!

Teaching Preschool

I just wanted to journal a little bit about my teaching experience when it was my turn to teach preschool on October 20, and then this last Monday, as well. I absolutely love teaching and the way I can connect with children, so of course I have been looking forward to this. Last month, when I taught, our lesson was, "The World Around Us: Sun, The Night Sky, and Nature."
After reading books about the world around us, I put on a nature sounds CD, and we all used our bodies to practice being tall mountains and trees, a flower swaying in the wind, a boat floating down a wild river, the sun, moon, and stars. Then we went on a nature walk in the backyard and picked up all kinds of leaves, flowers, sticks, wood chips, and rocks. Then we created tree rubbings using the items we had collected. After that, we sang some cute little songs together.

At snack time, I gave the kids orange circle slices (sun), jello circles (moon), cauliflower (snowy trees), triangular bread slices (mountains), and water with drops of blue food coloring (river). Their favorite thing to eat was the sun and the moon. For some reason, the snowy trees weren't a big hit, even with a little bit of snow (ranch dressing) on the side to dip it in. ;)

Play time in the backyard after class!

On Monday when I taught preschool again, our lesson was, "Food and Harvest: Grains, Dairy, and Meat." Elaine, who I team-teach with, taught the first part of the lesson the week before, about fruits and veggies. After I read them books, including The Little Red Hen and Green Eggs and Ham (two of my favorites), they helped me grind wheat into flour using my wheat grinder, and then I showed them the homemade bread I had made using the wheat. Then we made homemade butter, by whipping heavy cream with a electric mixer. They kids were so excited about these experiments! Even I was amazed by the home-made butter when Wade did a test run for me earlier. It was pretty cool. :)

Afterwards, we created a grain collage, using wheat, rice, and popcorn. And then I had everyone line up, and showed them a food item, and they had to race to it's matching group. When I pulled out the ice-cream, rather than running to the dairy group picture, they ran to me, and said, "I want some...please, please, please!" kind of like the birds on Finding Nemo (mine, mine, mine, mine) It made me laugh!

Finally, we had snack time, which was a slice of my home-made bread with the home-made butter on top, cheese, ham, apples, and a glass of milk. Next time I teach this lesson, I'll make home-made ice-cream rather than home-made butter, and the kids will really love me! I did send a mini loaf of bread home with each child, so maybe they'll come back anyway. ;)