A story

Once upon a time in a land called Ohio, lived Jeff and Debbie...

Late in the year 2009, all of their children came to said Ohio to celebrate a lovely holiday we like to call Christmas...

And these children brought their children...
Many adventures took place, such as making cookies...

And eating cookies...

Frosting was in abundance...
As were presents.....

And Mother Earth gave them a beautiful, bright rainbow on Christmas day to enjoy from the front yard...

And Nick and Chase received their much asked for GEO TRAX from Santa, because they don't already have enough tracks in their tiny house...

And Chase thought the perfect cuddle spot with Grandma would be right in front of the fridge (and Grandma took what she could get)...

And Grandma and Grandpa were noble and brave and took all 5 grandkids to TWO movies the day after Christmas...

And Chase ate much popcorn...

And Nick enjoyed having a make-shift bed on the ground...

And Chase would crawl on his parents bed and beg to take naps (oh wait, this is a TRUE story)..

And the week after Christmas (after they all passed around a 24 hour miserable stomach bug) Jeff and Debbie treated everyone to an indoor water park for two days, where these two brothers stayed in their first hotel room...

And they played with Brennen (and Ella and Preston, but Nick and Chase's mother is horrible at taking pictures)...

Afterwards, back home, someone turned 28...

And Mallory is still pretty...

And we brought in the New Year with the traditional and wonderful and delicious appetizer party...

And Grandpa told Nick incredible bed-time stories each night...

And Sunday afternoon looked like this for the adults...

And this for the kids...

And after all that fun, we had to return to the Land of the Freezing, PA, and create our own fun with shaving cream and trucks....

And sitting on the counter to help mom cook...

And we hit the books...

And found out that our voices sound super cool when we yell into the fan..

And the only real entertainment we now have is from this guy...

who makes our faces look like this for half an hour a day...

And the mother of the house refused to take out her recycling (this is the land of the FREEZING after all), and so the pile on the back patio now looks like this...

Because you have to walk THIS far to the recycling bins (do you see them? Yep, neither do I) and then you have to stand there and sort the clear glass, colored glass, plastic, paper, and metal cans...

But we're still enjoying our milk...

And we still cry to go play outside in the cold...

So that we can see our cute neighbor Russ
And we still drink green smoothies in the morning...
And pretend to be pirates, amoung other things, all day long...
And we believe, despite the sub zero temperatures and having to part with our families after the holidays, that we will indeed live HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

'Good in the Hood' on the news

Check out my cute brother Daniel and his non-profit organization. It takes a second to load, but is well worth it.

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Yes, we do celebrate the holidays...

I'm playing a bit of catch-up tonight, posting about some of our holiday happenings as well as some random pictures in between. Let's start with Halloween. Are there any other moms in the world that have to bribe their kids to dress up for school and trick-or-treating? Neither of my kids wanted to and both shed the majority of their costumes with the first few minutes. Nevertheless, we perservered.

We colored some pumpkins. Chase participated by sitting on the table and watching...

Nick, hard at work...

The finished result...

Love this silly boy...

Halloween...

Nick, the cowboy, would not wear cowboy boots or chaps...

Trick-or-treating with the neighborhood crew...

I love this picture...look at that Nick --

Nick loves creating things with his blocks and legos...

We took a quick trip to UT over Thanksgiving. My cute mom made Indian necklaces and headbands with the boys on Thanksgiving day before the big feast...

Cute Jack...

The finished project...

Why do my children never have pants on?

But at least they have undies on! Isn't this the cutest little naked Indian you've ever seen?!

The "babies" with Uncle Daniel...

I think the boys watched 'Polar Express' once a day, on whatever screen they could. Combining trains and Christmas...brilliant!

Aunt Marsy (such a thoughtful, helpful, beautiful, fun Aunt and sister) with Nicky-boy...

Nick and Jack...non-stop fun, adventures, pretending, trains, and laughter...

Chase fell asleep on the way home from church last week, normal occurence. What wasn't normal was that he didn't wake up when Brad got him out of the car, carried him inside, and put him on the couch!

I asked Nick to gently and nicely wake him up and he did just that. He's a great big brother...

Chase LOVES to throw things. Toys, household item, and especially FOOD. Messes like this are a normal occurence around here. And I really wish he would keep a bib on...

We had Nick's friend, Julia, over the other day. Julia asked if I would paint her nails and I jumped at the chance. Nick watched sheepishly for a bit and then HE jumped at the chance when I offered to paint his. It lasted for about 5 seconds before he asked me to take it off, but still a Kodak moment.


This past weekend we took the kids to the 'Polar Express' event that our library does every year. They read the book, then load us up on this bus and take us to Santa's workshop where the kids get to visit Santa and pick out a toy. My kids love this book and were very excited. But they do not like Santa. Nick insisted on seeing him so that he could tell him what he wants for Christmas (Geotrax), but wouldn't sit on his lap or look at him.

The "train" ride over...

Chase sat like this on Santa's lap the whole time. And you can't tell in this picture, but Santa looked like Dumbledore.
On Sunday church was cancelled (ice storm) so Nick and I made gingerbread cookies while Brad and Chase took afternoon naps. This is something my mom always did with us, and it's been fun to carry on traditions. Nick loves to cook and help in the kitchen...

Nick stole the camera and took some pictures of his own...

Chase helped when he woke up...

Some of the finished product -- yummy!

Merry Christmas!

Totally worth the $5.28...

Brad and I went to Blockbuster tonight for the first time in ages. When we walked out with ONE movie and five-dollars-and-twenty-eight-cents less money in our pockets, I felt a bit annoyed -- no wonder redbox and netflix is putting these folks out of business! But I must admit that this film was worth every penny:Now while I promise that this blog will not turn into a soap box of why we should all eat whole, organic foods (I'm just a wee bit excited/obsessed with it right now), I must highly recommend this movie. And that's all I'll say about it. It's good. And informative. The end.

Ch-ch-changes

Okay, not really that big of changes. This week I have delved into the world of organic food, and me likey. I wish it didn't cost more than normal food, but we're going to keep it up. The more I read about what is put into and on our food, the more I don't like it. I need to find some good websites and such, if anyone has any suggestions.

My real reason for blogging, though, was to post the recipe for what we had for dinner tonight. It's just too easy, healthy, and yummy not to share.

Pesto Turkey Burgers
1 lb ground turkey
3 tbls parmesan cheese
2 tbls pesto
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup pine nuts

Mix ingredients together and grill outside or on your George Foreman grill. We served ours with spinach, tomato, and onion and it was DELICIOUS. Thanks for the recipe, Katie!

For my husband

If you know me at all, you know that I could seriously care less about football...or any sport for that matter. But this is certainly not the case when it comes to my better half, who rather enjoys following and occasionally watching his precious BYU. I grew up cheering for the U, but since the degree I have came from the Y and my husband is an avid fan, I have found myself leaning more towards the blue side of things, if I lean at all. So this picture is for B-RAD. This is me expressing interest in the things you love. :)

PS- Speaking of Brad, the other night Nick was pretending to write a letter to someone. He spoke out loud as he wrote and Brad and I overheard the following: " Tomorrow is going to be such a wonderful day. Daddy is going to stay home and play with the kids, and Mommy is going to do our dishes!" Hmmm. I never have been the 'fun' parent. :(