A White Christmas for sure

Life ground to a halt today. We're snowed in. Want to know how much we got in one day? Notice the ruler in Josh's hand. Now you see it.



Now you don't.



So although I had errands to run and things to do, none of that happened. We did the only thing you can do when you have that much snow. We played!


This is our snow fort, with the legs of Jeff and Josh poking out either side. It was getting dark and we were still at it.

In other news, on Sunday we headed up to Temple Square where Megyn sang with her choir. Here she is in the south visitor's center. She also got to perform in the Assembly Hall. They sounded amazing.

Getting older. . .

Yesterday was my birthday. We had a busy weekend. As any December-born knows, birthdays are more likely forgotten that remembered during the holiday rush. I'm used to it and it doesn't really bother me anymore. I did get to speak to some family members and that was wonderful.
However, I did get to celebrate a little this weekend. Friday night Chris took me to a really nice restaurant which is something we rarely do. Neither one of us can justify spending a week's-worth of groceries on one meal--very often. The menu was pretty exotic. Chris ordered the wild boar but I stayed close to home and ordered a steak. It was really good too.
Saturday we hosted a dinner party at our home. We have a group that we get together with every month or two. We all bring part of the meal and have a nice time chatting. There is always one story that brings a good laugh. My friend who brought the dessert knew it was my birthday and her husband's birthday was Friday so she wrote, "Happy Birthday" on the cake and the rest of them sang to us.
Sunday was just Sunday. What more can I say? Jack tends to be a little fussy at church because he won't sleep. I rarely get to sit through any of the lessons. One highlight though was that Kennedy sang for the Christmas program. She and one other little girl sang, "Picture a Christmas". She was asked just a week ago to sing this song and she had never heard it before so we had to practice really hard all week. She did really well though.
Today I had a pretty strange day. About half way through the day I started feeling really dizzy and nauseous. It was so bad that I had to call a friend to come help me with my kids. I spend the rest of the day lying in bed. I think I'm a little better now so maybe I will go have some cake. . .

Temple Square

Its funny that Tyff was just saying how she is excited to go see the lights at Temple Square, because Brendon and I just did that. Brendon had it planned out to go after we both got home on Wednesday. So, we got Michael fed and dressed and headed up to SLC. After driving around to find a parking place, (it was so much easier when Tyff and Jason lived like a block away) we got Michael all bundled up and headed toward Temple Square.

I think I forget how beautiful the lights are because every year when we see them I'm still in a shock and awe stage when we first arrive. Michael seemed to enjoy the lights, he just chilled in his stroller as we walked around the grounds. It was a chilly evening, about 32 degrees, but as you can see Michael had plenty of blankets to keep him warm. Brendon ended up carrrying him towards the end anyways.

We walked all around the grounds and we saw these really cool luminers that neither one of us remember ever being there. Some were made out of metal and the others were made from paper bags.

These are just a few of the metal ones, there were lots of different pictures. Well, I just wanted to put these pictures up for all of those people who are not able to see "The lights at Temple Square." Here are a few other pictures to leave you with. Hope all is well with everyone! We love you all!

"I can't put my arms down!"

I got Siennah all bundled up to go outside yesterday and she looked like the kid on A Christmas Story! I couldn't stop laughing! Siennah just looked at me like I was crazy and said, "outside?".
So, is everyone ready for Christmas? After Thanksgiving with the in-laws I'm really excited to have Christmas with our family. I got our house all decorated but I'm sad that none of my family will get to see how cute it looks! I hate being far away during the holidays. I can't wait to take Siennah to Temple Square to see the lights. Whenever we go anywhere at night she gets all excited seeing the houses with lights. She says, "ooooh look!". It's so cute!
Our cul-de-sac made these big stockings for our yards and they have a spot light on them at night. It looks really cool to turn onto our street and see them all lit up.



I hope you are all doing well. I miss and love you all!
Love, Tyff

Lost?

Hey, just wanted to let everyone know the video I was working on over Thanksgiving is completed, and has been entered into the contest I made it for. The contest in question was to make a music video for a song from Coldplay, a popular band nowadays, called Lost? So my video buddies and I got together and came up with this. Coldplay posted it on their page, so it's one of 800 or so videos in consideration for the grand prize. Results are out tomorrow. Here's the link. Let me know what you think. Pardon the rhyme. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDnIeAVvt9U

I call the drumstick!

So sorry it has taken so long to put something up, we've been pretty busy here. And to make things worse, I didn't really take any pictures in Beaver. I know that Grandma took a bunch, but I think she needs some help getting them onto her computer. (hint, hint, Lyss) But here are the pictures that were taken.

This is the puzzle that was pretty much the entertainment for the weekend. The girls and I would spend what seemed like forever looking for a particular piece, and then Jeff would walk right up to the table and find it in a matter of seconds.

"I CALL THE DRUMSTICK!"

I'll give you all one guess on who the smart one is who exclaimed this..... ME! HAHA! I was thinking of a chicken. Grandma told me that the wishbone is what you should call for on a turkey. (Who got that by the way?) When I took a look at the turkey, I sure was glad that they didn't hold me to the whole drumstick thing. There was no way I could eat it all.

"Where two dead ends meet."

We were all getting ready to play a game when Mom said, "They started out shoulder to shoulder and moved down, now they're behind to behind." That got everyone's attention and I jumped up to snap this shot, when Grandpa said, "Where two dead ends meet." That of course got everyone laughing and I was barely able to get this picture before Derek woke up.

Hope all is well with everyone! And next time we have a family gathering where Christi has challenged us all to post something, everyone should bring cameras and take their own pictures. I think it would be fun to see what turns up and that picture thats worth a thousand words might be yours!

The Day After Thanksgiving

Since we all seem to be waiting for Mom and Taylor to post pictures of Thanksgiving in Beaver, I'll write about what we did the day after Thanksgiving.
No, better yet, here's a picture. This little nativity scene was hand crafted at Grandma Mary's kitchen table using dough made from bread crumbs and glue. Many hands helped with the sculpting, which took up several hours on Friday. The painting was done after we returned home.
Besides sculpting, we finished a record two 750-piece puzzles in three days. We also played games, watched movies and ate leftover pie. A nice, relaxing holiday.

Day Before Thanksgiving

Well I'm leaving it up to Tay and Grandma to post the Thanksgiving that took place in Beaver. I would, but I don't have any of the pictures that were taken, they do. It was a great Thanksgiving though. I loved having the BYU students there with us, and also watching the Cowboys dominate! Me and Derek decided that we're good luck when we watch the game, they score. :) Anyway so what I'm gonna post is from the 2 days before Thanksgiving. 3 of my friends and I, made a quick road trip up to Provo for one night. The missionaries that taught Mary went home on Thanksgiving day, and the day before they had their last testimony meeting and invited us to attend it. We stayed in Murray and my friend Aubrie's relatives house, the best part of it was, their house was huge, AND her cousin is friends with David Archuleta. Me and Mary thought ourselves pretty cool to sit in chairs and be in a house that David Archuleta was in. Hehe. Anyway so before the meeting we met up with more of my friends in Murray for lunch and then headed to Temple Square to spend some time at the visitors center and walk around the temple.

It was a beautiful day at Temple Square, we must have spent almost 3 hours there. Then the time came for us to get pretty in our Sunday clothes and drive to Provo. The testimony meeting was amazing. By the end, Mary and I were both bawling. It's crazy how much the missionaries not only changed Mary's life, but mine. It was hard to say goodbye. The sister missionary's name is Sister Beck. Mary and I met her at the visitors center in St.George. She quickly became such an inspiration and good friend to both of us. It was lucky that there were 3 missionaries that taught us, all at the same meeting. This is Elder Carver, Mary is determined to marry him :) Which I do not blame her, he was a great missionary and person in general. We all grew to love him and cried when he was transferred. And there we are taking our pit stop at the Beaver Chevron! Oh and I can't forget our friend Aubrie, our designated driver. She has become one of my best friends. We had a great, and very spiritual time!

North Carolina Thanksgiving

I spent most of Thanksgiving morning preparing my contributions to the feast--rolls and pumpkin gingersnap cheesecake. We had a nice meal (I forgot to take my camera) with our usual friends. We all bring part of the meal and end up with quite the smorgasbord. Who says Thanksgiving is all about the turkey? I say it's about the side dishes.

Chris invited a friend to the dinner. Paiman is one of the residents in the radiation oncology department. On Friday the two of them went fishing. They had a good time but Chris came home with a hurt back and a head cold.

We planned to get our Christmas tree on Saturday but Kennedy and Chris were both sick so we decided to wait until next weekend. Hopefully we will all be well by then. . . .

Texas Thanksgiving

Looks like I will be the first to accept Christi's challenge by posting Thanksgiving pictures. Jared, Tae Ho and I started the day by participating in the annual Grapevine Ward Turkey Bowl.

Next, we started a project. We are remodeling Jared's old room. Step 2 - tear off old wall paper (step 1 - get rid of bedroom set).Some good friends of ours, the Davis family, invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get Jared to look up for this picture. Tae Ho cooperated.

We polished off the meal with pie. As the picture shows, we had quite an abundance. In fact, we had 18 pies and 21 participants. Yes, there were leftovers!

Mary created an account on PhotoBucket for me the other day, and since I'm having a hard time sleeping I decided to get on and play around with it a little bit. This is the first thing I created. I thought it was pretty cute, this was taken just a few days before Shelby was put down. We sure miss her. Siennah just loves dogs, it was so cute how she'd always get up on the back of the couch so she could see her and say "doddy!" This picture is priceless to me

Happy Birthday Kennedy

We had a fun birthday party for Kennedy at Build-a-Bear this year. It was so great. She had about 10 friends come and they all got to make their own bear. All the kids were excited and I think we saw about three of the stuffed animals come to church today, not counting Kennedy's zebra that got left in the van.

Kennedy picked out a zebra of all animals. The zebra is a girl and her name is Lenny. Kennedy is very excited to be five now. She thinks that she MUST be taller than all the 4 years in her preschool class.

Today at church some of the kids were talking about birthdays in Kennedy's primary class and the teacher said that she likes birthdays too and asked them to guess when her next birthday is. When she told them it's tomorrow Kennedy broke out in . . .you guessed it, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow. . .". She is funny.

A Brunch Recipe

I did a cooking class at home for an Enrichment activity a couple of days ago. Despite the fact that my hand mixer died, the class went well. I demonstrated this recipe and it was a big hit.
Ham and Cheese Omelet Roll
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp flour
12 eggs
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2-1/4 cups shredded cheddar or Swiss cheese, divided
2 cups finely chopped cooked ham
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
Preheat oven to 350. Line the bottom and sides of a greased cookie sheet with parchment paper; grease the paper and set aside. In bowl, beat cream cheese and milk until smooth. Add flour and salt; mix until combined. In bowl beat eggs until blended. Add cream cheese mixture; mix well. Pour into greased pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until eggs are puffed and set. Remove from oven. Immediately spread with mustard and sprinkle with 1 cup cheese. Sprinkle with ham, onions, and 1 cup cheese. Roll up from a short side, peeling parchment paper away while rolling. Sprinkle top of roll with the remaining cheese. Bake 3-4 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Annie

I was just a little girl when the movie "Annie" hit the big screen. I loved it and remember singing with verve, "The sun'll come out tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun." There was a whole generation that looked at red hair with admiration and fascination for some time. It's been a long time since I thought about little Annie.

A few weeks ago Chris and I were discussing possible birthday ideas for Kennedy's 5th birthday. We decided that instead of buying her another toy that we wanted to "buy" her an experience. We started searching and saw that the musical "Annie" was playing in Raleigh on Kennedy's birthday. I pulled up some clips of various Annie musicals on youtube. Kennedy seemed to really enjoy it so we bought the tickets and wrapped them in pretty paper when they came in the mail.

Tuesday was the big day (birthday and the musical). When she unwrapped the gift we told her that our gift to her was that she and mom were going to get dressed, stay up late and go see Annie.

Kennedy was a fun date to this musical. She went in singing "The sun'll come out tomorrow. . .". She was excited from the very first note. There were a few times that she got a little bored but all in all I was impressed with how well she did. The musical was good too. The woman who played Ms. Hannigan was so good, hilarious.

At the end of the musical Kennedy asked me if she could give Annie two thumbs up. During the curtain call she kept asking me if it was time. Soon Annie came out and I held Kennedy up so she could see (everyone else was standing by then) and she held both her thumbs up high so Annie could see. She's such a cute girl (Kennedy, I mean).

The state of 50

Now that I have 16 days experience as a 50 year old, I have a few observations to pass on as a public service to the blogosphere:

. Better to turn 50 than the alternative
. 50 isn’t much different than 49
. Black balloons are a nice accent to an office cube
. AARP sends a nice letter on your birthday, inviting you to think of the title “Senior” in a new light
. There are two vastly different views of how old 50 is – those who are older than 50 think the age is “Young” and those younger than 50 think the age is “Old”
. The medical establishment thinks 50 is the perfect age to check plumbing
. Playing basketball is for the young at heart
. Jogging 2 miles a day keeps the doctor away
. Terms such as Seasoned and Experienced are suddenly in vogue
. It doesn’t matter what color the hair is, as long as there is hair
. Age can be used as an excuse when it is convenient
. Turning 50 adds another point toward the pension calculation
. I will never catch up to old-man Ron

Slacker

Neither Tyff or I posted anything for Halloween because that night we were on the road for about 4 hours, headed to Tremonton for our cousin Braeden's baptism the next day. I actually just got home really late on Friday night. I was gone for over a month, it feels really good to be home. First I stayed with my friends Ryan and April in Salt Lake for a couple weeks. And then I went to Boise and stayed with Tyff for a couple weeks. After the baptism in Tremonton I went down to Orem and stayed with my Grandma Marilyn for a few days when my friends Bonnie and Mary came and picked me up Friday night. I had a great vacation. It was so much fun to spend time with everyone, especially cute little Siennah and Michael. They're growing so quick.

These are pictures I took on my phone so they're not the greatest quality. I love being an aunt!

This is a picture I've been meaning to post for a while. My friend Emily took it back in... July I think it was. We were up Cedar Mountain by a little pond, just going for a walk. She has a Canon Rebel, the camera I want, it's amazing. And she has great photography skills already! Isn't this picture pretty awesome? I thought so. Anyway, that's all from me. I'm home and ready to go back to work and normal life!

Jack turned five months old today. Last week he had his first cold and was miserable. We gave him rice cereal for the first time yesterday and guess what? He likes it!

Whenever Tristan doesn't like something or he is scared he puts his hands over his ears. He spent a little time on the potty this weekend and guess what? He DOESN'T like it!

Michael's first HalLOWEen

While shopping at the Children's Place I found the cutest costume ever for Michael. I purchased it and hurried home so we could test it out. So right when I got home, Michael became a cute little penguin. Luckily it fit because he then immediately spit up all over it. (surprise, surprise) So on Halloween I went to work as usual, and since I work at the mall I was able to dress up. I chose the gorgon Medusa. After months of planning my head piece, Brendon said "Why don't you just buy a wig and put snakes in it?" So that I did and my costume was a big hit.

That evening we went and visited Grandma Marilynn, then just came home. With no trick or treaters visiting our house, we still had a bowl of candy left over just for us. (haha)

He is always so happy!

And just for fun, here is a picture of Michael I just took this morning! It made me happy and I wanted everyone to see it.

Kelsey Halloween

Life has been so busy with three kids and all the other stuff that life brings that I was really boring this year and bought Kennedy and Tristan's costumes at Party City. Kennedy really wanted to be Ariel from Little Mermaid and I got Tristan a fire fighter costume since he loves fire fighters so much.

We had the ward trunk or treat on Thursday. Tristan had his picture taken with a real fire fighter and he thought that was great. The kids got lots of candy and the Friday night door to door treating was just a bonus. Our friends live downtown and have a big party every Halloween. We start off with a white chili dinner then take the kids out for trick or treating. After a stroll up and down the street we come back for dessert and fireworks. It's always fun.

I was really boring and didn't take the time to come up with a costume for myself. I know, not like me. I've turned out to be a really boring mom. I told Chris that we were dressing up next year. That was after I saw my friend Monica and her family. She has three kids and they all dressed up like cave people and her husband was dressed as the Geico cave man. It was hilarious.