Buzz Light Year

Last night Caleb received a late birthday present from Aunt Heidi, Uncle John, and his three cousins John, Lauren, and Lizzy. They live in California so they were not here to celebrate his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. He woke up from his nap and saw the present they sent him. It was this cute Buzz Light Year costume. They go to disneyland all the time and they got this at the Disney store. He thought it was the neatest thing. It's one of those moments where your scrambling to find the camera cause you have to get a picture of this! I'm hoping that it will still fit him by Halloween. I'm sure that it will because he is so skinny. He is already asking when it's going to be Halloween.

Caleb thinks he's pretty cool when he wears this costume!

I just couldn't resist taking a picture of my Izzy. Isn't she soooo sweet?

THANKS SO MUCH CLAYTON FAMILY!

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

When Will It Quit Snowing?

I don't know about you but I am so tired of having to shovel our huge driveway! It has been snowing at least 2 days a week and not to mention the everyday wind that we have up here on the mountain. Why can't it be springtime?

Well, the reason I am complaining about the snow on this post is because we had some problems getting out of our driveway this morning. First of all, Brandon likes to wake up and play ward basketball at 6am. It really didn't snow too much up here only about 3 inches or so but it was enough to complicate things for him. He tried backing out of our driveway in his car (not four wheel) and got stuck. He didn't get stuck in the few inches of snow but on a sheet of ice on our driveway. We couldn't get the car off of it no matter how hard we tried. So here we are @ 6:30 in the morning trying to dig out (I mean PUSH) his car off the ice. The wheels kept spinning and it smelt like burnt rubber. Finally, we got it off of THAT ice patch. We looked at the damage to the driveway and the tire pretty much dug a hole in the concrete.

Anyway, it doesn't end there. Then, B decided to try to get it out again to go to work. He sped out fast, hit the same spot and slid into the snow drift on the side of the driveway. With the help of a couple of neighbors who saw us in desperate need, we finally got it out. B took my car to work because he didn't have enough time to shovel this morning so, I got stuck with his car. I was scared to drive his car thinking that it would happen again with no one around to help me. I shoveled the best that I could and prayed that I wouldn't get stuck.

When it was time to go, I cruised out of the driveway and I couldn't get up the tiny hill in front of my house that other small cars had no problem on. So, I had to back down my street and turn around and take another way out. Once I got on the main street I was relieved.

It still doesn't end, as I was driving down the freeway his car started shaking. So we took it to the shop and got the tired balanced so we'll see if that helps at all. While all of this was happening, I just started laughing because all of us (including the neighbors)couldn't believe that we were stuck in the ice and we couldn't get it off. It was funny!!

Sorry about the long story. I'm sure you all understand why I am so frustrated with the snow! Especially on Traverse Mountain they never plow very good so when you leave you feel like you have to cross your fingers that you won't get stuck somewhere.

Has anyone else had a problem with this stupid snow? I wish that I was going on a cruise with our friends

Brandon & Errin in two weeks.

GET THE SNOW OUT OF HERE!!!!

We Love You President Hinkley!

Last night my sister Tiffany called me and gave me the sad news about President Hinkley's passing. We knew that he was getting old and his years were numbered. We were naive in thinking that he would always be with us. His passing is a time of rejoicing because he full filled his mission here on Earth the way the Lord had intended him to. Now he is with his sweet wife living time and all eternity together in heaven. Before his wife Marjorie passed away he wrote her this sweet letter:

"My Darling,

All that is said in this book concerning your virtues is true. Your own words and those spoken by a host of friends bear tribute to your worth. More, much more, might have been included.It is now more than sixty years since we entered the Salt Lake Temple, there to be married for eternity. I had known you for a long time prior to that. I knew what I was getting into, and it has turned out as I had hoped it would. What a treasured companion you have been. Through all these years we have walked side by side as equals before the Lord. There have been good days and bad days, but the good days have far outnumbered the bad ones.You have been my critic and my judge. You have seen to it that my shoes were shined, my suit pressed, my tie straight. You have pushed aside the flattery that comes with public life, and winnowed the kind and sincere words of honest and loving friends. You have held at bay that old fraud of adulation and kept my feet planted on the solid earth. How I appreciate you....our voracious appetite for reading and your relentless pursuit of knowledge have kept you alert and refreshing throughout a long and fruitful life. Now we have grown old together, and it has been a sweet experience. We have shrunk in stature and move a little more slowly. We are more forgetful. But as of this writing we still have one another--and that is so good. And when in some future day the hand of death gently touches one or the other of us there will be tears, yes, but there will also be a quiet and certain assurance of reunion and eternal companionship.'Trusty, dusky, vivid, true...'The God of Heaven fashioned you.I love you, dear"

What an amazing husband and father he was! He loved his wife so much! That letter made me want to cry when I read it because he is so sincere in every word of it!

Pres. Hinkley was an amazing man and someone that we looked up to. He dedicated his life to serving the Lord and the members of the Church unconditionally. He is the type of person that we hope someday to become.

We Love You President Hinkley!

U of U Basketball Game

Yesterday we thought it would be fun to take the kids to a University of Utah basketball game. It was fun! Caleb tried on a boy's "red" Utah hair and he thought that he was pretty cool!

He had fun clapping with the crowd as the Utah cheer song came on!

The kids had fun hearing the buzzers and cheering with the crowd. Caleb loves hoops!

The funniest part of all was when Caleb, being the social person that he is, walks up to the top of the stairs to sit with tome boys that he didn't even know. He just sat there and talked to them like he was one of the "big guys."

So, after seeing this post, don't get any ideas thinking that we have switch over to the other side. Just so you know where we have always stood in college rivalry sport, we LOVE BYU football, and LOVE UTAH basketball. If we had to choose between the two, Cougar football takes it all the way!

U23D

Tonight Brandon and i went and saw out favorite band U2 in 3D in the IMAX theater at Jordan Commons. I must say that it was so awesome! We went to their concert 2 years ago and they were unbelievable! THis 3D experience felt like we were at the concert again. At times it felt like Bono was reaching out to touch us. So cool! We are so glad we went! So, all of you who wish now that you would've known about it, they are showing it again in mid Febuary. Check out this trailer! We love U2!

Rolling

Tonight on KUED @ 8pm there was a special documentary on Brandon's brother Ernie who passed away almost 5 years ago from ALS (also know as Lou Gehrig's disease). This was an amazing show to watch! It's about Ernie and 2 other people who were also overcoming disabilities. For over many months they were video taped showing us their everyday life struggles from a wheel chair. They also discuss their hardships being faced with their awful disabilities and diseases. Ernie has a part in all the chapters but mainly in Chapter 3. Check it out for a moment so you can see what a wonderful person he was to all of us! In case you didt see it tonight, you can see it again on Sunday January 27th @ 4pm on KUED. I also posted a link so you can watch it right here if you want. Ernie was so amazing and this is an honorable tribute to his life!

WE LOVE YOU ERNIE!

http://www.thirteen.org/rolling/experience/thefilm

http://www.inthisweek.com/article.asp?id=2501

http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_7881299

A Day At the Museum

Yesterday I took the kids to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. My kids love going there cause there is so much to do! We got the at 11:30 and left at 3:30. That is a long time when I really had nothing to do but watch them play.

If you haven't been down to the museum at the Gateway you have been missing out! There are so many interactive things for kids to do. I find myself running around after Caleb because he loves to go from one place to the next. He gets so excited! It has a cute little grocery store, a gas station with a car to fill up gas, a barn, a farm, a construction site, a house with a kitchen full of food and cooking utensils, and much more. The only downside about this place is that it costs $8.50 per person over the age of 1yr. So, it's kind of expensive. I bought a family year pass last summer and we have used it a lot since.

If anyone wants to go with the kids and I anytime just let me know. We would have so much fun! It's the perfect activity for a cold winter day.

Say Cheeeese!

Today I decided to brave the horrible weather and take the kids to get their pictures taken. It has been almost a year since I have had both of my kids pictures taken together. I know that's terrible. However, I do take ALOT of digital photos of them though. It's not the same I know.Anyway, those of you that live up here on Traverse Mountain know that when it snows in the valleys, it's it a blizzard up here!!! The roads were terrible! I have never been so grateful for a four wheel drive vehicle! People had slid off the side of the freeway because the roads were so bad. Being the protective mom that I am, I drove so slow. It took me 45 mins to get to South Town Mall. Anyway, I hope all of you were safe on the roads today!

Getting my kids pictures are so hard! First, you make an appointment and you STILL have to wait. Second, the kids start getting their clothes wrinkled and dirty. Third, when one smiles the other doesn't and the smile isn't that great. And finally, Izzy started crying and was finished before the last sitting. Doesn't this just happen to all of us? Maybe that's why I only get there pictures taken every 9 months. Even though the entire process took 2 hours and my outing to the gym was shot down, the pictures turned out adorable. I have the CUTEST kids!!!

I came home to about 3 feet of snow in my driveway (I'm not kidding!!!). So, I spent 3 HOURS shoveling my huge driveway and sidewalks. This is honestly the 4th time that I have done it this year! I am so determined to break down and get a snow blower because it shouldn't take that long to shovel snow. You are probably wondering why Brandon doesn't do it. Well, I have to admit that I enjoy doing it and I don't want him to have to worry about it after a long day at work. It's great exercise since I didn't workout today.

Let's just hope that we get a break from the snow storms for a while because I can't do this everyday!

Why Did This Happen to Me?

About two weeks ago Brandon bought a 2005 Nissan Maxima and sold his Honda. Well, a lot has happened to this car in just two weeks. As you know, Brandon has been in Jamaica this entire week and he is going to come home tonight to some bad news about his precious car.

It all started about 2 days ago when his front headlight burned out. I took it to get fixed and the mechanic said that only the dealer could fix it because they have to take off the entire bumper to put a new bulb in. Not to mention that the light bulb itself costs $60. So the grand total of that is going to be about $160. Okay, I guess I could deal with that cause how often does a headlight burn out?

Anyway, today I though that it would be fun to take the kids to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (dumb show!) after the gym. So, I went to spray off the car and everything looked great once all of the salt and dirt off. We grabbed lunch and went to the movie. Well, once I got home I noticed the driver side mirror casing had been cracked and the person who broke it used some kind of glue to attempt to fix the damage. There was also blue paint on the mirror. I called the dealership to see how much it was going to cost to get the mirror fixed and they told me about $500. Can you believe my luck with this car already?

So my question is, why can't people just be honest and leave a note? Can't they be responsible enough to own up to their mistakes? It just makes me so mad because I could never do that to someone's car and just drive away and forget about it! I guess the thing that makes me feel the worst about the whole thing is the fact that it's Brandon's car. He's coming home from a long trip with almost $700 in repairs to his new car. I know it isn't my fault this happened because it could've happened while he was driving it. I still feel bad! I keep asking myself, "If only I would've taken my car then this probably wouldn't have happened because my car sits up higher."

Oh well, these things happen. I guess that I will have to be more like my dad and park at the back of the parking lot so nothing will happen to my car.

Sorry Babe!!!

Ahhhh! I Feel SOOO Good!

So don't laugh when I tell you that tonight I received my very first pedicure and I must say that it was probably the best 45 minutes that I have ever had! Since Brandon is gone for a while and will be gone for a long time this next month, I thought that it was time to treat myself. You never get around to doing something like this unless:

A. You finally want to break down and spend the money
B. You have someone to go with to keep you company and talk you through the whole process
C. Get a FREE babysitter to watch both kids (thanks grandma & grandpa)
D. And finally, hubby isn't around to tell you NO!! Ha, ha!

I think those are good enough reasons to splurge on myself. What do you think?

It's Friday night and I didn't want to stay home another night alone with my kids. I called up my sister Jodi because her hubby is gone too, and we decided to have a girls night out. So, we left the kids home and had a really fun night! We went out to dinner which was so nice and peaceful with out having to battle with the kids. Then we got our wonderful pedicures @ the mall. I can't believe I have never had one of these before! I walked out of there with hot pink sparkly toes feeling like a new woman! Then of course, you can't go to the mall without going bargain shopping for our kids. What else could you ask for? Unfortunately, it all had to come to an end for the night but not the end of pedicures.

So all of you who have never had one take my advice from which I took from my sister, you have to pamper yourself sometimes cause we get so caught up in taking care of everyone else we never stop to really take care of ourselves. Thanks for the advice and the fun night, Jodi!

Let me know if anyone wants to go get a pedicure with me. I'll go anytime!

Off to Jamaica!

Okay so you look at this and you are probably thinking that I am off on a tropical vacation in the Caribbean, right? Wrong!!! Brandon just left today for an entire week to Jamaica and I get to stay home with the kids. Actually, he's not there for pleasure but for work. But still, I think I have a right to be somewhat jealous especially with the weather that we are having.

Brandon is helping to open one of his company's first "Kids" stores and he is primarily in charge of overseeing it all. It's called Sol Kids. It's a sister company to Del Sol that he has been working for far about 6 1/2 years now. This is an exciting new opportunity for him!
So, he's gone all week and I have nothing to do. Any ideas? Whenever he is gone on business trip I just really don't feel the desire to get ready and do anything. I was a bumb today! I didn't even go to the gym! Which would surprise some of you. Oh well, tomorrow is another day and I guess that maybe I should actually do something productive. Do you ever feel this way when your hubby is gone?

My Little Sunbeam!

My cute little Caleb just started Sunbeams last week. It has been so fun watching him during sharing time because I am in there with my class at the same time. He is a pretty active little boy and I had a hard time imagining him in primary trying to sit still and be good. Wow, I was presently surprised that he sits so reverently in the front row singing all of the songs that I had sung to him since he was a baby.

As I watched him today singing, I almost started to cry because he is growing up so fast! It's so fun to see him learn about our Savior Jesus Christ. When we asked him today what he learned about in class he said, "Jesus made our bodies for us." I was so happy that my little angel is already gaining a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. I realize now that he is listening to us even when we try to teach him about church topics.

Tonight we read from the illustrated Book of Mormon and explained the pictures to him. He sat so quietly and listened. He even was able to answer the questions about the story too. I'm so proud of him! I love my future missionary!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

I am a little behind on this post because Caleb's 4th birthday was last friday the 4th of January. We had a lot of fun at Chuck E Cheese's with all of his cousins. He loved running around spending his "money" on every game in sight. He prefered the basketball games the most. It was fun to watch him put his money in and before the game was even done, he put more money in. Oh well, whatever makes him happy on his big day. We ate cake and icecream and opened lots of presents! I guess you could say it was like Christmas all over again for him.

I didn't know what to get him this year for his birthday. I kinda forgot that his birthday was so soon after Christmas that he pretty much got everything for Christmas. I scrambled at the last minute trying to find a gift for him and I decided that I couldn't go wrong with ANOTHER train set. Even though he already got two more big ones for Christmas. He had a fun day and he plays with all of his new toys every day!

Brandon's parents were out of town over his birthday so we had a small party for him at our house with them a couple of days after his actual birthday. They were excited to see my kids because they had been gone for 3 week sin Hawaii. Of course, they spoiled him too.

I can't believe that my little boy is four now! Wow, time flys by so fast. He just gets funner and funner as every year passes! We are so blessed to have him in our lives!

We Love You Caleb!

Happy New Year!!!

We had such a fun New Year's Eve with Brandon's close Olympus High School buddies! First of all, we hardly ever get together with our friends so this was extra fun. I know that this is an aweful excuse but, life gets busy and time passes by so quickly! After this fun party we want to start having this be a yearly tradition for all of us to bring in the new year together.

We went over to our friends Kevin & Lara Peay's with our other friends Josh & Alecia Holmgren. The guys flipped the stations on the TV between the Jazz game and football. This is definitely NOT uncommon for them to do this everytime we are all together! The girls just sat and caught up on the happenings of one anothers lives. We had a yummy dinner and watched the kids hit a piniata and dash for the treats.

We didn't stay until midnight though. We tired out from all the excitement at about 10:30pm. Don't laugh when I tell you that over the past 6 years, both Brandon and I are in bed before the New Year arrives. I guess that we are all worn out from the busy year that just wrapped up.
We had a wonderful time with our great friends! We are so lucky to have wonderful and supportive people in our lives! Thanks so much Kevin and Lara! We'll host it next year and we PROMISE to stay up until midnight!

Izzy had fun playing with all of the kids toys. She was definitely a trooper cause she didn't fuss or cry about being up so late. She was an angel!

Caleb worked hard to hit open this cute unicorn piniata lara bought for the kids. He knew what was waiting for him inside.

They were so excited! Just look at their faces!

Caleb thought he was pretty hot stuff as he cruised around in Sam's new race car. He literally spent all night in this thing! He wants one of these things so bad! Not only was he driving around like a crazy man in this car, he also carried the head of the piniata in the back filled with all the candy that he collected. Ha/ha, what a cutie!

Happy New Year!!!