I'm Dreaming...

...of a white Christmas...and our dreams came true! Yes, I know for some of you, you've already had over a foot of the fluffy stuff this season, but in our little corner of the world it is actually snowing. Did you know it's hard to take a picture of snow? Anyway...the kids saw the snow first, yelling and screaming----again, can you believe that we LOVE snow!? it's like an extra shot to a holiday or ANY day, but especially on Christmas day.---after they were jumping up and down and hollering, I decided to see for myself. But yep, there it is, nice fluffy flakes.

Tried taking pics of the kiddos but I didn't want to go outside in my bathrobe and stood in the doorway instead. Somehow I didn't garner the wonderful pictures that I desired. If it keeps up we'll take some more. :) Yes, I will actually get dressed this time! That ought to help with a picture!

Those who know me know that I have a hard time staying on one subject at a time. Words just generally tumble out of my mouth in some unpredictable way, like yesterday when I said to Chandler about an ice cube and instead I said, "umbrella". I feel that way with all the words I would love to write, even just about today.

Dan and I stayed up late doing our appointed tasks as official helpers of Santa. We eventually crashed in bed, only to wake up my alarm clock at 5am because I hadn't wrapped a few gifts that I'd forgotten, one of them being Dan's and so I was on duty. First I got scared half to death because "Arnie" was standing guard. Somehow Trevor had a life-sized cardboard cutout of a military officer. Now, we'd all had some run ins with Arnie put in various places in the house for all of us in the family to have an opportunity to be scared, startled or whatever. We even had him waiting just inside our door to surprise Travis, Jess, Thomas and Jess's sister, Amber. Then there was getting everyone in the living room. I only took a few pictures while opening because I was just drinking it all in. Having all of us together,it was more than wonderful (dang it, where's my thesaurus when I need it?)! Thomas just ran this way and that. His favorite was the pretend cell phone razor and his new Pooh Bear jammies.

Dan made our traditional Swedish pancakes for breakfast. So yummy!! They are also called pletters and are thin little cakes almost like crepes. We sprinkle them with powdered sugar or sometimes homemade jam.

By then it was time for Thomas' nap and so Travis, Jess & Amber left. I was tired too. So Dan put on the newest "Pirates" movie and promptly fell asleep. We're watching it for the second time now.

OH! I would have to say that one of my very best gifts was the black wooden rocking chair that my mother had rocked us in as kids and that I had also rocked my boys in. I knew Trevor had a project going on for me but had no idea. What with the tree up and everything I hadn't noticed that the rocking chair was missing from the room. He's not quite done but he stripped it and is staining it a golden oak to go with the floor. I can hardly believe it! Once, a long time ago I had mentioned that I wanted to restore the rocker. He remembered this. It is very thoughtful and I can hardly wait to bring it back into the house!

So we will spend the rest of this blessed day together, loving and laughing and enjoying the fact that we can be together. I hope you all can find the same for you.

Thanksgiving

Dan did a fabulous job as chief chef for Thanksgiving! He is truly amazing. I'm a lucky girl! We had a wonderful and relaxing time. Jess, Thomas and Jess' sister, Amber came over to spend part of the day and Thanksgiving dinner with us. Thomas was asleep during most of it. But he woke up right as we were finishing. He seemed to like the sweet potatoes pretty well. Travis worked until 7pm so we made him a plate of food when he got here that night. He wanted double helpings of dark turkey meat. Dan made sure that we had saved some for him. But it was really neat that Travis' work (Horizon Airlines) had catered in a Thanksgiving dinner for the employees. When he called he said he still had plenty of room. After pie all the kids played Apples to Apples. Thomas was a happy little guy sliding down the stairs to play with his toys. Chandler also beat me at a game of War. But I won at Go Fish-Hatch family edition. :) Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family & friends.

Fall Leaves

Ooh, I love this picture! The boys and friends were playing in the massive quantities of leaves that fall in our yard. Most of those are from the sugar maple tree just above Chandler. I love his smile here, relaxed and happy! Couldn't resist taking tons of pictures!

Trunk R Treat '07

This year we ended up having all three wards that met in our building combine for the annual Trunt R Treat in the parking lot. I wasn't very creative this year and forgot to bring the jack o'lanterns to sit beside the van. Sweet Aabbee brought me over a chair since I forgot that too. It was just me and the boys since Dan wasn't feeling well.

I had Chandler who decided all on his own that he wanted to be the Monopoly Man. These pictures don't do it justice. He has a top hat on that I brought straight from Massachussetts. We sprayed his hair white, painted on a white mustasche, made him a cane from a dowel and painted it. He also had the idea to make Monopoly money out of green cardstock. I told him that we could use a few of the regular Monopoly pieces but he didn't want to take anything away from the game.

Ransom decided to be a geek. Thanks to Dan who found a geek kit on clearance he even had goofy teeth to wear and nerdy glasses. You can't tell but yes, he hitched up his pants and wore the bowtie. Funny thing is, his football sweatshirt is a treasured possession and he decided that he would say he was the ball boy or soemthing. Couldn't get it off of him.

Aaron, our friend and neighbor down the street really had a costume of an evil jester, but took off the evil mask for the church trunk r treat and I like how he looks like a happy jester anyway! His mom, Wendy, and little sister, Jazzlyn, came with us too. Wendy was busy walking her around since she didn't want to go with the boys.

I wasn't feeling the most festive this Halloween but the boys got a haul of candy and so much fun! It made me happy watching them. Wendy took them later to some neat, decorated houses around town and then they came home. They loved it!

When I got home Jess and little Thomas came over. They had run late and didn't do the trunk r treat. But she had gone to all the trouble of dressing in her p.j.'s and put freckles on herself. She dressed Thomas in little bear ears and painted his nose so he could be her teddy bear. Travis was at work and so it was just the two of them. It tickled me that they came by to show us. I put a little bit of candy in a lunch sack and handed it to them before they left. They looked so cute!!

Crazy Pumpkins

My crazy boys with their pumpkins! They decided that scooping the guts out was fun even tho' it was messy. Don't ask me why they all decided to take their shirts off before getting goop on them. :)

Trevor's 17th Birthday

Trevor came in our room first thing after Daddy woke him up with the Cougar fight song (think BYU) So he plopped on our bed while I told him his birthday story. This is a tradition of ours. So I told him his birth story and then Dan handed him his wrapped present. Before he could even open it, the present started ringing! He was thrilled that he got a new cell phone. Being the kind brother that he is, he handed off his old one to Ransom. It was his turn to be thrilled.

Anyway, we went to church, enjoyed ourselves and then Trevor decided to recharge for awhile. Our friend, Wendy, made Trevor's birthday cake. She's a professional and even drew a guitar on it for him since he loves to play guitar. We're going to wait to have his steak dinner until tonight so Travis, Jess & Thomas can be with us. Still we had cake & candles last night. It was great!

New England Visit

My sister and I had been planning on this trip for me to visit her in Massachusetts for quite awhile. When my niece, Steph, heard about it she decided that I needed to bring Trevor with me. I could totally see her side. She and Trevor are only a month apart in age and hadn't seen each other since they were toddlers. Travis had an extra pass with his flight benefits. So we started hatching a plan...

Trevor thought the plan sounded great but worried about missing school, work, cheering and let's face it...GIRLS. And he was even a little embarrassed that Steph would go to so much trouble getting people together for them to hang out. He was very responsible and talked to all of his teachers, bosses at work and even the head of the cheer squad he's on and they gave him the green light. We were SO excited! How fun to tromp across the country with my almost 17 year old son to meet with family! (Now before I go any further I have to admit something....nowhere in our time there did I get pictures of Trevor and Stephanie together! ARGH!)

The good thing about Travis having a job with the airlines is the perk of parents flying for free! But part of Trevor's birthday present was his buddy guest pass with me. We got there two hours before just like they said, but it's kind of silly since we fly standby and don't get told until about 30 minutes prior to the flight whether or not we can fly on that flight. Still, we got there in plenty of time.

Let me back up a little bit...about 20 minutes before we left the house for the airport we get a call from Ransom that he had gotten hurt during practice. So Dan goes and gets him. Now I'm thinking, "Do I go?" "How bad is it?" "Is it broken?", etc. Dan brings him in and lays him on the couch. He's got swelling but nothing that looks obviously broken. But I'd already decided...I was going to be the one to take him to the hospital. Ransom wouldn't hear of it. He told me that Daddy would take him and he would be mad at me if I didn't take my trip. Dan reassured me that all would be well and with a hug and a kiss we were off...(Ransom ended up NOT having a broken leg but badly bruised the bone and tissue around his knee. He's healing fine.)

Trevor and I get to the airport and through security. By this point I'm not quite myself because I'm on a new medication for fibromyalgia....note to self....don't try new meds just before flying anywhere! I could hardly walk in a straight line and was apparently talking in my sleep on the plane (we took the red eye flight). I'm so glad that I had Trevor to make sure I was okay. We laughed about it later when he told Laura about my almost spilling water on the floor and requesting new water from the flight attendant. So poor Trevor got no sleep on the plane. When Laura picked us up we came straight back to the house while everyone was still at school and both took good, long naps until they came back home. Laura was, I'm sure, doing her usual superhuman feats while we were sleeping. Seriously, she amazes me.

It was wonderful to see my nieces and nephews again! And Laura, of course! Steve was on a business trip to India so I just bunked in with Laura. Trevor slept in with Kevin (15). Trevor would go to early morning seminary with Stephanie and Kevin, then come back here and crash for awhile before it was time to run errands. Trevor was such a good sport and didn't mind running here and there with us. Even tho' we spent like 30 minutes or more in the Yankee Candle shop! He had fun smelling the stuff we liked and helped us pick out what to get.

The first night Trevor went to mutual with the kids and I helped Laura with her cub scout den. We talked about healthy foods put then made some cookies to finish the night! She has a lively bunch and we were pooped out by the time we were done. Trevor said that he had a great time because the youth spent the time making short films. He got to do most of the filming.

Thursday was market day. Whenever Laura says that I always say, "to market, to market, to buy a fat pig?" Yes, not the funniest thing I've ever said but those Mother Goose rhymes stay with you, don't they? She has to go weekly because of still having six of her nine children living at home. We also did a Costoc run so we got to have yummy Costco muffins the next morning. The missionaries came over for dinner that night and brought someone that was interested in the Church with them. Mainly I played with Aaron, Adam and Benjamin. We did interviews and such. They have so much energy! I think they wore me out. ;)

Friday we had more errands to run but that's when we also go to see some of the scenery and stop and take a few pictures. The picture of Laura and I was at a bridge in Hollis, New Hampshire. We were on our way home from Nashua, New Hampshire. As soon as we got dinner done we had a Stampin' Up! party given by one of Laura's friends. It was fun to learn some new techniques and to have some us time. We stayed up way too late having fun after everyone left and made some cards of our own. We agreed that there would never be a trip long enough for us to do everything that we wanted to do together. This was the third time I've been to New England and have yet to do the Historic Sites of Boston. Although out of town we did see the Old North Church.

Trevor and I were SO glad that we took this trip together! I was horrible about taking pictures with my camera but I just kept trying to take pictures with my heart. In turn, I hope to be able to take each of the boys on a trip like this to Massachusetts to see their New England cousins and aunt and uncle. Trevor enjoyed going on the rope swing in the pouring rain with Kevin and Stephanie and Trevor are new best friends. Gotta Love It!

All Part of the Game

Poor Ransom had a football injury on October 16th and will probably be warming the bench the rest of the season. He badly bruised his knee and bone. He continues to go to every practice, even with a leg brace and crutches. The coaches give him quite a bit of credit for that. And yes, that's his football hoody he's wearing. It's okay, baby, there's always wrestling season to look forward to!

Signs of Fall

After just returning home from the beauty of our nations northeast it made me appreciate our northwest even more! This lovely Japanese maple goes fire red at this time of year and it is gorgeous. I just had to share! And to think it lives in our front yard too!

The Birthday Boy!

Baby Milestone

Our little grandson, Thomas, turned one on Sunday and we had a little party to celebrate. I think his favorite thing was the cake! He shoved it into his mouth with great gusto! This little boy will eat everything and anything. He is such a fun boy and we like to follow him up and down the stairs to watch him explore everything around him. He loves to go from room to room to see what fascinates him. He loves to carry things around, like a spoon or keys or little super balls.