Yes, we are alive!

Wow, it has been so long since I've been on. Sorry! (I know I've said that way too many times lately. Working on it!) :0) We survived our trip to Oregon over the holidays and had a wonderful time with family and friends. We weren't quite sure if we would make it to Oregon, or not, due to the weather. We had planned on driving there, but when we found out about all of the storms and road closures, we decided to fly. Thank goodness for Bri's air miles!!! ;0) It all worked out in the end, though, and I think I prefer flying with the kids for an hour than driving in the car for 10 at this age!! :0) Paige and Austin have always been great on airplanes and this was the case on both flights! Thank goodness! ;0)

The reason why we went to OR in the first place was because Brian's brother, Dan, was getting married to one of the sweetest girls out there, Rachael. It was an amazing sealing and I loved seeing how happy they were through out the ceremony. It reminded me of my sealing to Brian and the covenants we made with one another. The gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the most wonderful thing on this earth. It brings so much peace and joy to my life, knowing that I can be with my family forever!!

Well, we are now home and getting back into our schedule after 3+ weeks of being home. :0) I apologize for the picture overload, but hey, it's been either feast of famine lately, so bear with me!

Here are a few Christmas pics. The kids were so excited! It was hilarious have the kids go through their stockings and seeing them get so excited about the Little Einstein movies, candy and socks that were in there. If I get a chance, I'll post some videos of Paige and Austin looking through their stockings. Funny stuff!

Austin gave Paige a Polly Pocket set. She was SOOOO excited about it (see the next picture) and has been playing with it non-stop!! Best pressent ever, according to Paige! Great job, Austin!! ;0) Paige gave Austin a little remote control dinosaur that is so cute!! It's probably the slowest remote controlled anything that I've ever seen, but perfect for an almost 2-year-old boy!!

Paige asked Santa for this one! She also asked for a REAL dog, but that wasn't going to happen, so she got this instead. She didn't seem to mind....thank goodness! :0)

Austin is LOVING trucks and tractors right now. He was so excited to get these little construction trucks. He's even learning all the different names for the trucks from his Grandpa N. He especially loves his "caterpillar" or "pillar" as Austin says it! :0)

I made this little paper doll for Paige with my Cricut for a quiet church activity. I made Austin an alphabet matching game with animals for every letter. They turned out so well and the kids actually like playing with them! Always a plus, isn't it?!? ;0)

Lauralee is one of a kind and we love her so much!!! Doesn't her smile just make your day?!? ;0)

Brian and I went on a double date with John and Bethany (BIL and SIL) to the Blazers game on Christmas Day. It was fun going to the game, but it would have been better if they would have beat the Dallas Maveriks!! Oh well. At least the one their game against Boston two days later!! I'm pretty impressed by the shot I was able to get at the beginning of the game. It was fun watching Oden play again in person. Reminded us a little of our days in Columbus! :0)

Dance party '08!!! We turned on a little music and got out onto the dance floor! It was hilarious watching all of the kiddos dancing. Can you tell that the girls outnumbered the boys a little?!? :0)

We were able to take a few pics at the Portland temple after Dan and Rachael were sealed for time and all eternity. Of course it was raining, so we took the pics in the atrium. The kids were fascinated by the plants as you can see!

A pic of the happy couple. Sorry I wasn't able to get a better shot of you two, D & R!!

The one and only family picture taken with my camera. Love Bri's facial expression!! (He's blaming it on a cold!) :0)

Reception time! Paige seriously thought that Dan and Rachael were a prince and princess! She was in heaven!!

A little pic of my little handsome boy!!

More dancing. You just can't stop these girls!! ;0)

We spent 3 days at a beach house at Seaside!! It was so much fun! We did plenty of lounging....

playing on the beach which was VERY cold and windy the first day, but nice the 2nd day....

seeing lots of marine life at the aquarium....

playing on lots of rides and games at Fun Land....

and I think the best part, riding Fun bikes on the beach!!!

Paige LOVED these things. She could actually reach the pedals pretty well and got really good and going all over the place....that is until her and Brian got hit by a wave and she got soaked. She wasn't too happy about that and was pretty much done after that! She still says that riding bikes on the beach was the best part of our vacation, though!! ;0)

I saw Beth!!!!! I haven't been able to see Beth for years and after I called her to see if we could meet up I found out she only lives about 15 minutes from Bri's sister. How cool is that!!! It was so fun seeing her again. Seriously, she is such an amazing person! She's so talented, beautiful, funny and the sweetest person you could ever meet! (Have I embarassed you yet, Beth?!?) It was wonderful seeing her again! And her kids are soooo cute!! Thanks for the great visit, Beth!

When we got home from our little vacation, we were finally able to put together the gingerbread house I got for the kids. I sure you can tell what the favorite part was for the kids (notice I included Brian in the "kids"!!) :0)

Paige did such a good job decorating the house! She would eat maybe 1 piece of candy for every 10 she put on. Austin, on the other hand, ate 10 pieces of candy for every 1 he put on. Yeah, sugar-high-city!! ;0)

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation. Paige absolutely LOVED spending time with her cousins, Natalie, Lauralee and Sydney. We hardly ever saw her during the day because she was constantly playing with them, whether it was dressup, puppies, house, etc. It was so fun seeing her get along with her cousins so well! Austin learned a little about defending himself around his cousin, Ava. Ava has to be THE funniest little girl. She has the most personality I have ever seen in a toddler, EVER! :0) And Austin was quite afraid of her!! They pretty much had a hate-hate relationship according to Austin. Oh well. Hopefully they'll learn to play well together the older they get! :0)

Merry Christmas!

I thought it was only appropriate to have this as my title since my last post was entitled "Happy Thanksgiving". Yes, I know I'm very bad at this blogging thing lately. (It's on my New Year's resolution list!) :0) I don't have time to post pictures or say a whole lot tonight, but they will be coming, I promise. We're leaving tomorrow to go to Portland for Brian's brother's wedding and Christmas and when we get back I will overload you all with pictures and stories! ;0) (There are always good stories with the siblings and cousins get together!!) I do sincerely hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas.

P.S. Tammy, I saw your tag and I promise I'll get to it when I get back! ;0)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow!! Hopefully you'll be spending it with loved ones and good food, I know we will be!! :0) In order to be ready for the "feast", we made this Turkey Drumstick headbands. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine and it was so simple. The kids LOVED making them and wearing them! Do they make you hungry for some TURKEY?!? :0)

Hair-do favs

If you look on my sidebar, I have links to some of my favorite Hair blogs. If you have days where you just don't know what to do with your girl's hair, check these out!! Here are some of our favorites! (They really aren't difficult and the "hair experts" on these blogs have great instructions on how to do them!)

Bows, bows and more bows

I've been busy making and helping my friends make bows. This is another hobby that I've picked up and it's so fun! Paige sure likes the results, also! These bows are for my nieces for Christmas. Do you think they'll like them? ;0)

Does life ever slow down?

So, I thought (naively, of course) that life would start to slow down a little once volleyball season was over, but, alas, it is not to be! :0)

The kids are keeping me busier than ever. Paige is loving preschool and has her teachers wrapped around her pinky! They are amazed at how quickly she picks up on things and how excited she is to learn. Her favorite song right now is "I love to see the temple". She sings it every chance she gets. If I can get the video to work on blogger, I'll post a video of her singing it. So cute!! Paige is also quite the fireball. She has a lot of energy and has to be "guided" in finding good and effective ways to use that energy. We're working on her sassiness right now and I'm really hoping that it all starts to sink in soon. For example, in Sacrament meeting on Sunday, she told me that she had to go potty and that she wanted to go by herself. I, of course, wouldn't let her because, hello, she's only 3 (even though she thinks she's 16). As soon as I told her that I would take her, she completely went ballistic. She started screaming, saying, "I want to go potty BY MYSELF!" At that point, I try to carry her out but she wasn't making it very easy for me to do so because she's arching her back and trying to get away from me. I finally get her out of the chapel and I head into the bathroom, but she refuses to go in because I'm in there and she wants to go "BY HERSELF". Finally after 5 minutes of trying to reason with her, scold her, threaten her, she goes into the bathroom. She does her business and comes out as if nothing happened and she did nothing wrong. Terrible two's were NOTHING, I tell you!! She can be really sweet, though, has the cutest smile, and has quite the imagination, so we'll definitely keep her. But if any of you have suggestions on how to end these "little" tantrums, let me know!

Austin is such a sweet little boy. His smile just melts my heart and he loves to give kisses. He can have an attitude and loves the lovely word, "No", but hey, who doesn't?!? :0) He has this little puppy that he carries around everywhere. Seriously, he has to have it all day, every day. He had to take it in the car when we were running some errands today. I made him leave it in the car when we went into a store or the library and he was NOT very happy, but he soon forgot about it until he saw the car again and then he let me know that he wanted his puppy. He's talking a lot now and is seriously talking every minute he is awake. He LOVES "Little Einsteins" on the Disney channel and has the "Pat, pat, pat...BLAST OFF" down! One of his and Paige's favorite things to do in the car is "blasting off" when the car starts to move. It's pretty funny!

Another reason why life hasn't slowed down any is that Brian was called to be the 1st Counselor in our new Bishopric. No more relaxing Sunday afternoons for him! It's been quite the adjustment for me during Sacrament meetings. I haven't sat down with the kids during Sacrament meeting since Paige was 2 months old. I've always been on the stand to lead the music. I've also NEVER had to get the kids ready for church, go to church and come home from church by myself before. It's not difficult, but oh it was nice having another pair of hands!! Brian's liking this calling, though, and we're already seeing the blessings that come with this calling. I just feel extremely blessed to have a husband who holds and uses the Priesthood worthily. He is an amazing man and I love him so much for his willingness to serve!

OK, I'm really sorry this post is so long. I really need to start blogging regularly again, so I can avoid these EXTREMELY long posts!! I won't make any promises, though! :0)

We love the park!

Cousin Sydnee came to visit a couple weeks ago and it was such nice weather that we had to take advantage of it. Where else would we go but the park!!

Sydnee liked the swings and just scooting on her bottom on the gravel because she didn't like the feel of it when she crawled. Austin found lots of sticks to put in the rocks and of course liked the swings. When Paige wasn't hiding behind all of the trees, she was finding worms. Yes, she likes worms and thinks they're "soooo cute". Silly girl!

Enjoy the pics!!

Do you see the trail that Syd left behind her?!? :0)

Halloween has come and gone

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. We had a great Halloween week. It started of on Tuesday with Paige's Halloween party at her preschool. She was SO excited to wear her Cinderella costume. I didn't get it out until that morning so she would be extra excited and I wasn't disappointed. :0) (If you know Paige, you can only imagine how she reacted!!) ;0) Paige's party was so fun. There were a couple of other princesses and LOTS of pirates. The kids were so cute in their costumes. They played a few games and then had lots of halloween treats. Luckily, Paige decided to save quite a few of those treats for later, or else we would have had a very hyper and probably sick little girl!! ;0)

For Family Home Evening, Brian, the kids and I decided to paint pumpkins (much easier to paint than carve pumpkins with a 1- and 3-year-old!!) The kids LOVED it. The entire time, Austin reminded us which pumpkin belonged to which person. He would say, "Mommy's punkin....Daddy's punkin.....Paige's punkin...my punkin"....over and over and over again. It really never got old, though, because it was so cute how he said it! :0)

On Thursday, Brian, Brian's mom, the kids and I all went to "Boo at the Zoo" and had a great time there. The kids loved being able to go to a zoo again (oh how we miss the Columbus zoo!!) and they got the added bonus of trick-or-treating while we were there! :0) We saw some great costumes (maybe a few ideas for Halloween's-to-come) and just enjoyed unusually nice weather. Paige LOVED being Cinderella and Austin had no say in being "Prince Charming". Paige had it all lined out. She knew she wanted to be Cinderella for a couple months and then she said that Austin had to be her Prince. Some days she said that he had to be the coachman or the footman, but I decided to stick with Prince Charming. When I was getting Paige dressed at the zoo, she was so excited and kept saying, "Mom, I'm going to be a true princess, right?!?" It was too cute.

It was a good thing we went trick-or-treating at the zoo because Bri's mom and I went on a State Volleyball date and were pretty much gym junkies for 2 days. It was so fun watching some good volleyball with my MIL. We always have a great time together and this weekend was no different! I have to thank Brian for taking care of the kids for me. He didn't feel very well and Austin refused to take a nap while I was gone, but he still did it. At times he was not very happy about it, but hopefully he knows how much I appreciate all he did this weekend!! Brian, Brian's dad, and the kids came with us for a few hours on Saturday. The kids actually did quite well considering the loud gym and the crowded bleachers. I've included a couple pics of the kids hangin' out at State V-ball!!

Well, enjoy the pictures and see if you can pick out Brian's favorite costume from the zoo! :0)

Here are a few extra pics that I couldn't resist putting on here. Paige got these glasses at preschool and of course we had to model them!!! :0)