Paige and Austin's favorite pasttimes

Here's Paige's latest dance. Seriously, she has the MOVES! She definitely doesn't get it from me...maybe Brian has some secret dancing talent that passed on to Paige! :0)

Every day, all day!! It's either this cupboard or the cookie sheet drawer. At least he's kind enough to hand them to me, right? ;0)

A tribute to President Gordon B. Hinckley

I've been sent this link a couple times and I thought it was great.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/

I know I am a better person because I have tried to follow President Hinckley's teachings and counsel. President Hinckley will definitely be missed, but I am so happy for him and his sweet wife!

I'm back!

I've actually been back for a week, but I'm just now getting to posting again. It's been a little crazy since I've been home. I had to clean my house from top to bottom to get ready for my Usborne book party that my mom so wonderfully put on for me and during that time, my children came down with some pretty bad colds. Now, since they can't seem to keep their hands, mouths and slober away from me, I, too, am sick. Not fun, but that just comes with having kids, right?!?

Anyway, I had the most wonderful time visiting friends in Ohio. It was so good to see almost everyone and realize that it's not my home anymore. That was a great feeling, by the way, to know that we finally feel settled where we are now. I was a major slacker with pictures while I was there, but I did manage to take a few. What I'm most proud of, though, is that I was able to get most of the kids from Paige's playgroup to say Hi to Paige through video. Paige LOVES watching them and remembering the fun times she had with them. She seriously has such a good memory. Once she saw the videos, she would tell me something like, "Mom, remember when I played with ____ (fill in the blank with either Sammy, Zachy, or Emalyn) yesterday in my white house?" The white house was our condo in Ohio and yesterday means anytime in the past...it could be years or months ago or actually yesterday. We need to work on the time concept, I know! ;0) A wonderful thank you to all my friends out there, especially Laurie who let me stay with her most of the time I was out there, who made the visit so fun. Seriously, we really need to do it again!!

These first two pictures are from the amazing COSI in downtown Columbus. Austin LOVED it, especially the cloth stacking toy, as you can see. Peek-a-boo is one of his favorite games, if you couldn't tell that from these pictures already! He was such a good boy throughout the entire trip. He slept on the plane (the entire flight home, I might add), was very flexible with going so many different places with me and even missing a few naps. He was a trooper, that's for sure!
Here's Austin and his new buddy, Grace. It's so fun, because Grace's big brother, Sammy, was one of Paige's best buddies out in Ohio...by far...and Austin and Grace hit it off right away, also. Austin would go over to Gracie every time he saw her on the floor and give her slobbery kisses on top of her head...seriously, EVERY TIME! Grace didn't like it much at all, but Austin sure enjoyed it. A true boy, that's for sure! :0)
Here's my wonderful friend, Krissy, and her daughter, Kate, with us at a wonderful little ice cream shop. Krissy gave me the idea to make a little girls' trip out to Ohio and I am so glad that it all worked out!! It was so wonderful to see her again!!! Thanks, Krissy, for everything! For all of you in Ohio, if you haven't gone to Jeni's Ice Cream yet...GO!!! It was so yummy and they have some of the strangest yet most delicious ice cream combos. I think my favorite one was the Chocolate with cayenne pepper (I can't remember what they called it). It was sweet, but had a nice little kick at the end! :0)

I'm in OHIO!!!

In case you've been wondering why I haven't posted anything for awhile,  it's because I've been in the great state of Ohio!  It's been so much fun seeing so many of my "long-lost" friends.  Their poor husbands, though, probably think that they don't have wives the past couple days since we've been having "Girl's Night Out" every night since we've been here.  Well, I'll post more once I get home.  I have a few pictures to put on, also, but that will have to wait!!

Oh, I forgot...one more thing!

Yes, there is something else that happened Saturday and I forgot to mention it. On the way home, Paige finally fell asleep about 15 minutes from our house. She stayed asleep while I got Austin and all of our bags out of the car. I carefully undid her buckles in her car seat, gently lifted her out, and got a big whif of urine. Yes, she had peed in her seat. Yummy!!!!

Who....me?!?

When I posted this picture this summer, several people commented on the "look" on Paige's face. I have always interpreted this face as being very mischievious and guess what...that's exactly what our little girl is!!!

Here's our story for the day. It all began while eating breakfast. The kids were eating their cereal and I thought I'd jump in the shower real quick while they were happily occupied. It was a very short shower so I didn't think anything would happen. But alas, after I was dressed I went into the kitchen to find the milk jug on the table. (Not a problem usually, but I knew I had put it in the fridge before my shower.) I became very suspicious once I saw Paige's face. I told her that she needed Mom to help her with the milk next time and as I was putting the milk back into the fridge I noticed something moving in the jug. Lo and behold, there were tons of Cheerios in there, but that wasn't what I felt moving. It was a spoon. Paige thought that it would be a good idea to mix in a few Cheerios in the milk with the spoon, but realized that she couldn't get the spoon back out. So that resulted in just under 1/2 gallon of milk wasted. Great.

As soon as I got myself and the kids ready, we left to go visit my sister, brother-in-law, niece and brother. Once we got there, we fed the kids lunch and I put Austin down for his nap. One child down, one more to go. Since my niece was also taking a nap, I decided that it would be safer and more convenient to put Paige and Austin in the same room...Austin in the pack'n'play, Paige in my sister and BIL's bed. After storytime, Paige laid right down, no problem and I thought "Wow, this is going to be much easier than I thought!" I went downstairs to visit with everyone and make a necklace with my sister. After about 20 minutes I thought I heard something upstairs so I went to check up on Paige. I walked into the room and found Paige rubbing almost an entire bottle of lotion into Austin's head. She did manage to rub a little in her own hair, but most of it was on Austin. Austin was awake of course (maybe managed to sleep 30 minutes...maybe). Paige instantly went to timeout while I took Austin downstairs to clean off his head/hair and my wonderful sister took on the task of cleaning off Paige. I should have taken a picture, I know, but I was too angry at the time to do it. After all of this, I knew there wasn't a chance of Austin sleeping again for awhile, so I kept him downstairs and once again went upstairs to try to get Paige to take a nap. (I normally wouldn't worry about it, but I knew she was so tired because she had major bags under her eyes which is her obvious sign of being exhausted!) Once again, she laid down with her doggy and lamb and looked like she was going to fall asleep. I went back downstairs and began working on my necklace again. About 10 minutes later I heard a little someone coming down the stairs and I called up to her to just come down because I knew she wasn't going to sleep. As we were getting ready to leave, I went upstairs to make sure we didn't leave anything and guess what I found this time? Paige had gotten into a drawer and found a certain type of "stash" that I'm sure most married couples have next to their bed and spread it all over the bed...the pillows, sheets, comforter, etc. It was awful. I instantly called down to my sister to show her the evidence. She took it a lot better than I thought! :0) Luckily it was already "wash day" at their house and she put the load of bedding in before we left. So, I don't know if our little "angel" is just curious or purposefully looking for things to do to drive my crazy...I just hope she doesn't have another day like today!!!

Cute Background templates!!

One of my friends had this site on her blog and I absolutely LOVE the backgrounds. Check them out for yourself at http://cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com/.

She can go down by herself!!

By the end of our day at the sledding hill, Paige would go down it by herself!! Such a big girl! I was in the car with Austin, but Brian said that she just laughed the whole way down.

More fun in the snow!

Here are some more pictures of Paige and Daddy sledding down the hill. She had so much fun, even when Daddy sprayed snow in her face on the 1st run. When I went down with her right after that she told me not to spray snow in her face like Daddy did. Very funny!

Paige and Austin on Sledding Day

We went sledding yesterday at our local golf course. Paige had a blast and I think Austin would have, too, if his face wasn't so cold. He was trying to smile when Brian was pulling them on the sled, but he couldn't get his face to work, I guess! ;0) As soon as I took him into the warm car, he started talking and laughing watching all of the kids going down the hill. Paige was a very good big sister and held onto Austin the whole time to make sure he didn't fall over. Good job, Paige!

One of our Christmas crafts

I saw a couple of my friends do this with their kids and I had to try it. Paige LOVED picking out everything to put on her snowman. She hand-selected everything you see on this snowman. She told me where to put the glue and that's all I did. Paige was so happy when it was done. Isn't it cute?!? ;0)

We're back...sort of!

I have been quite the slacker lately with my blog, but almost everyone has been over the holidays, right?!?



We had a wonderful Christmas and were able to see almost every one on both sides of the family. We started out our "vacation" (it's in quotation marks because I'm not sure if it really was a vacation with all of the traveling we did :0)) going to Island Park with Brian's family. It was so much fun playing in all of the snow. We stayed in a beautiful condo/cabin with an amazing view. Brian, Dan (Bri's little brother) and I were even able to play a little racquetball!! I was very out of practice, but it was so fun playing again. I really need to find a place to play here!! Paige had so much fun climbing the "mountains of snow" and making snow angels. Bri and Paige stayed there until Sunday, but Austin and I had to leave Saturday night because I had to lead the choir for our Ward Christmas Program on Sunday. (It went really well, by the way. I have such a wonderful, dedicated choir!)



We then left Sunday night to go to WY to visit my side of the family. We had all of the grandkids together for Christmas so that was so much fun!! We were just missing my brother and his wife. We missed you, Lance and Bekah!! I was just sad because we forgot my camera at Island Park, so I'll have to post pictures of our time there once I receive them from my sister-in-law. Sorry!! :0) Paige loved her Christmas presents. She received a Make-your-own bear kit, which she LOVED!! Her cousin, Challis, got one also and opened her's first. When Paige saw it, she was so excited. She put her hands to her mouth and let out a big, "Ohhhhh"! It was so cute. Then when she opened up her own kit, she was ecstatic! It was so fun. She also received some books, coloring books, puzzles, a dress, a "Wizard of Oz" doll set (she likes the Wicked Witch of the West the best, strange, I know!), a hot pink camp chair, and last but not least, a Barbie tricycle! She rides it all over the house. Silly girl! Austin had fun on his 1st Christmas, also. He received lots of books, a shirt that says, "It's Mister Little Man to you!" :0), a ride-on and push toy, which he loves! I think his favorite part was "helping" me put his push toy together. He was lots of help as you can imagine!



Here's a few pictures from our adventures this Christmas vacation. I'll post more once I receive them...this not having your own camera for Christmas Day really stinks!!!

These 2 pics are from our bedroom at Island Park. Gorgeous view, isn't it?!?
Paige with her cousins
Paige showing off her "Wizard of Oz" dolls. She took them to church on Sunday and loved playing with them. One of her little friends saw them and tried to play with them, too, until they started fighting over the Wicked Witch of the West....nice!
Austin modeling his new shirt that was actually his daddy's when he was little. He called it his "Hoss" shirt because he LOVED Bonanza growing up! :0)