I vant to suck your blood...

Matthew had been quietly sitting in the backseat today (which is very rare) when he said, "Dad, what are vampires?" Tim said that they were imaginary monsters. I added that they have sharp teeth and don't like the sun, but also added that they are not real. Then I asked where he had heard about vampires. "The Holy Ghost told me about them." I would have loved to listen in on that conversation.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. Matthew got all the presents he wanted and James finally got to get those chubby little hands on some wrapping paper and ribbon. Matthew wanted a "reindeer shooting game" (which is a deer/elk/bear hunting game that comes with a rifle you plug into the TV). I wasn't sure about this game at first. I didn't like the guns and shooting, but you're not shooting people and you actually learn gun safety. And besides, my dad is a hunter, and he's a pretty normal guy. For the most part ;) I'm sure there are many 3 year olds out there that asked for their own "reindeer shooting game." It is all Matthew wanted and when asked, it is his favorite present. Santa did not disappoint.

Matthew was so excited that Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk. It was really cute. He bypassed his presents to see if the cookies were gone. Santa even left snowy footprints at our house.

(Sorry, some of our pictures turned out blurry!)


(I think Matthew looks like he is a poster child for the NRA or a group of crazy white people.)
We hope you all had a very joyous Christmas! We wish you peace, happiness and love in the new year to come!

Christmas Eve

We had such a great Christmas Eve. We did our traditional Christmas Eve fondue dinner and had Ted, Martha, Kristen, and Donavon over. We had a great time. We also got to open our C.E. presents together and took a fun group pic with our new pj's. Afterwards, we read the Christmas story and sang "Silent Night" along to Tim on the guitar. Then we went out and looked at Christmas lights and even ran into the Grinch. It was a great night and one we will remember always.

Matthew and I made cookies for Santa. He LOVED his cookies. This was Matthew's idea for a pose. It worked. Kristen made these Santa aprons. They are so cute!
James is opening his very first Christmas Eve present. I wonder what it is?
Pajamas! (Ignore all that beautiful wiring in the back. I had a few extra lights on the string.)
Cute pajamas!

California, here we come! Right back where we started from.

Okay, so neither one of us started out in California, but I like that song. It looks like we're headed to California after graduation. Tim has just accepted an offer with Hensel Phelps Construction Co. We are very excited and looking forward to this next phase in our lives. Although we will be sad to leave our friends and family, we'll only be 6 hours away. And Tim is sad to leave his current job at Hardison/Downey. They have been so good to him. It was a hard choice, but a lot of thought and prayer went into this decision. Tim starts working with Hensel Phelps in a few weeks. Unless he decides Phoenix is a better fit, we're packing up and heading out to SoCal late May/early June.

Gingerbread Houses...

For FHE we decorated a gingerbread house. We gave Matthew total design control of the house. He did a really good job. The boys had lots of fun with it. Can you tell what Matthew's favorite part was? Candy!

Just some cute stories about Matthew...

So, I'm pretty sure I have one of, if not the, cutest 3 year-old around. On Saturday, while Tim was busy in his workshop, I decided to make his Christmas present. While I was working on it, Matthew asked me what I was doing. "I'm making Dad a blanket for Christmas, but you can't tell him. It's a surprise." I said. Later that night, Matthew said to Tim, "Dad, mom is making you a blanket. You are going to like it and you will be happy." He may have ruined the surprise, but at least he's making sure Tim appreciates my work. He's lookin' out for his mom.

Yesterday, during Sacrament, Ted gave a talk. In his talk he asked, who can administer good unto all of us, like the angels in the Bible. Matthew, happily, and without skipping a beat said, "Santa!" I'm so glad he's learned the true meaning of Christmas.

In the Jungle, the Wild Jungle...

Saturday night we went to Zoo Lights with some friends from Gilbert. It was so crowded and freezing cold. I'm sure we are cold weather wimps, but my toes were numb by the end of the night. We had our kids wrapped in blankets almost the whole time. It was fun to see cute little Cooper and Ella. I didn't get any pics of them, though. Maybe next time. The one with Matthew plugging his ears is a funny story. We spotted this little area that was set up for storytime, and just our luck, the show was just starting. Oh. My. Goodness. It was lame. When a 3 year-old plugs his ears and is begging to leave, you know it's bad.

Random Post

Okay, so to use a term created by Jamie, I've been a slogger. I'm sure there are so many of you out there in the blogosphere that have been very disappointed. I was in charge of our Relief Society Christmas Dinner on Tuesday and have now just recovered. Anyway, here are some random photos to keep you up to date with my little stinkers.

Here's a photo from our trip to see the temple lights. Isn't he so cute?

For my birthday, Lindsey sent me a really pretty cake plate that can also be used as a trifle dish. When did I start to go ga-ga over things like this? I'm a real live grown-up! Well, the box it was packaged in was full of a trillion peanuts. I thought it would be fun to pretend that the peanuts were snow. Does anyone out there know how easily they fall apart, stick to your clothes, and are impossible to clean up? I know and I now remember why I hate them. It's not worth winning mom of the year to play snow angels in those styrofoam peanuts from Hell. It took me about an hour to clean them up. And today, about a week later, I am still finding them. At least Matthew had fun.

Don't you just want to pinch that little tush? James is so stinkin' cute. I can't get enough of those chunks. And he has finally decided to commit to crawling. But I need someone to remind me why I was excited for him to crawl.

I hope everyone was able to get their Matthew and James fix for the day. I promise to do better from now on.

Not so silent night...

Last night we went to Bill and Katie's for dinner. We had breakfast for dinner. Yum! Matthew loved playing with Ruby, Betsy and Cannon. They are crazy kids when they get together. Lots of running and screaming. Afterwards, we went to the temple to see the Christmas lights and Nativity. It was so pretty.

The kids spent the majority of the night running on and jumping off this bench. Matthew and Betsy are standing on it and Ruby and Cannon are twirling into the photo. They kind of look like deranged albinos. Especially with Cannon trying to take a bite out of Ruby. I guess you can't see the bench in this picture. You'll just have to take my word for it then.

Matthew kept his hood up the whole time. It was really cute. This pic was taken just before Matthew tried to dump James.Kristen took most of the picures of the night with her camera, so maybe I'll post some of those later.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Hello! The Christmas season is here and it's time to get those Christmas cards out. I would love if everyone could please send me their addresses, so I can get our family card out to you all. My email is to the right. Thank you!

*This means EVERYONE (we know) that visits our blog.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. We sure did. Tim had a 4 day weekend and we enjoyed every minute of it. We went biking, Black Friday shopping, Christmas light gawking, and ate lots and lots of turkey. We even decked our house out, Christmas style, inside and out. Now if our temperature could just drop another 20 degrees or so...

And he cleans up so nice...

Today was a big day for James. He got to try licorice for the first time ever. He LOVED it. He is also growing some very nice teeth. Two, to be exact. His bottom ones. And he said "dada." Okay, so he wasn't trying to say dad, but he clearly said "dada." Genius. We are raising geniuses.

I wouldn't sell my bike for all the money in the world. Not for a hundred million, trillion, billion dollars!

Can you name the movie that line came from, Linz? It's one we watched over and over and over. I'll give you another hint. "On this very night, ten years ago, along this very stretch of road in a dense fog just like this. I saw the worst accident I ever seen. There was this sound, like a garbage truck dropped off the Empire State Building... And when they pulled the driver's body from the twisted, burning wreck. It looked like this..." Aaaah!!! Rewind it again, Mom! Rewind it again!

We decided to take advantage of our beautiful weather and ride our bikes to my in-laws for dinner. They live just about 2 miles away. The boys loved it. We went with Kristen and Donavon. Kristen has the cutest pink cruiser. I am very envious of it. But don't worry, Babe, I LOVE my mountain bike.

Sweet Baby James...

James felt left out, so I decided to post a pic of him, too. He is getting so big. He is just over 7 months now and I think over 19 pounds, too. He's a chunker. He is soooo close to crawling, but won't even consider sitting up. Too much weight to support, I guess. He is such a happy kid and brightens everyone's day. Including Matthew's, which is saying a lot.

Mas-You and Delaine...

Yesterday, we had cute Elaine come over for a visit. She followed Matthew around saying, "Mas-you, Mas-you." Matthew called her Delaine. He combined her name with his cousin Delaney. It was so cute. And man, she is a firecracker. She is so tough. She would try to start wrestling matches. She must watch UFC, too. Ah, a girl after my own heart. Anyway, I think they had the most fun climbing up a little ladder onto my bed and then jumping off onto all of my pillows and blankets. Look at the air they got. It was fun to have her over.

My Heart Will Go On...

Yesterday morning, as I was starting the daily list of breakfast ideas for Matthew, he stuck his hand up and said, "Wait a second, Mom. I need to tell you something. My heart is growing bigger." "Does your heart hurt?" I asked. "No, it's just getting bigger like dad's." Adorable.

6 Things You Might Not Know About Me...

1. I had my belly button pierced when I was a senior in high school. My parents went out of town one weekend, and I had a friend that was getting her tongue pierced and wanted me to come along. I know, who knew I had friends with pierced tongues? Anyway, I tagged along. I had been wanting to get my belly button pierced for a while, so in my wonderfully rebellious teenage mind, I decided to jump on this opportunity. My parents came home Monday while I was at school. All day I felt totally guilty about deceiving my mom and dad. So I decided that I would spill my secret as soon as I got home. Well, silly me, I left "How to care for your newly pierced navel" instructions on the kitchen counter. Man, did I hear it when I got home. I did, however, get to keep my belly button ring in. I took it out less than a year later, and to this day I still have a hole. Lovely.

2. Every morning I lay my makeup out the same exact way as the day before. I apply my makeup in the same order every day. I never switch it up, and never have. I feel that if I did it all different one day, something bad would happen. Weird, I know.

3. I have to ALWAYS have chapstick or lip gloss on. I am addicted to chapstick. I have back-up chapsticks hidden all over my house, purse and car.

4. I don't really like physical contact. I don't like to hug. Some of you know this already, but I'm not sure if you know to what extent. I feel so awkward hugging. I do hug and kiss my boys on a daily basis, but that's where it ends. I would rather avoid hello's and goodbye's so that I could surpass the hugging. If you are standing next to me and are crying your eyes out, I'm considering polite ways to comfort you that don't involve contact. Isn't that sad? I'd say I'm heartless, but I 'm really not. I cry all the time, when I'm happy, sad, mad, someone else is crying, or something is heart-warming. I just can't handle touching.

5. I secretly want 8 kids. Right now, we have decided on 4 kids total, but I LOVE being pregnant and I LOVE babies. Even though I get pretty bad morning sickness in the 1st trimester and I retain water like a camel, I love everything about pregnancy. It's like 9 months of Christmas Eves. The thought of only being pregnant 2 more times is distressing to me. So I told Tim that if we have 2 more boys, then I want one more, just to see if it will be a girl. And even if it's a boy, I'll give up my obsession.

6. I am probably the pickiest eater you will ever meet. I don't like any kind of seafood, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, onions (I love the smell of onions and butter sauteing and the flavor they add to food), mushrooms, spinach (unless it's in spinach and artichoke dip), bell peppers, cooked carrots, corn off of the cob, green beans, peaches, lettuce in anything other than a salad, meatloaf, carrot cake, peas, coconut, olives... Man, I could go on forever. But I LOVE Spam. Go figure!

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

The Next Ultimate Fighter...

Okay, so I've been noticing on a lot of other blogs people have been tagged and their assignment is to reveal random or unknown things about themselves. I thought that was kind of a fun idea. So to go along with the picture today, I am going to reveal an unknown fact about myself. It happened about 2 1/2 years ago. Tim took me out to dinner to our favorite place, Buffalo Wild Wings. It's one of those laid back kind of places with big screen TVs and loud music and great food. Well, this particular night the sport being played on every single TV was Ultimate Fighting. I'd always associated ultimate fighting with boxing, and I hate boxing. And whenever I heard anything about Ultimate Fighting, flashbacks of Monica Gellar's Octagon fighting boyfriend entered my mind. But within minutes I discovered my love for Ultimate Fighting (which is actually a little different from boxing minus the blood) in the form of Chuck Liddell. Who doesn't love that mohawk? Anyway, that night I was sucked in by this mixed martial arts sport. And I have been a loyal fan, although from the closet, ever since.

While Tim was flying home from California Friday, he saw Tito Ortiz. Tito is one of the biggest names in Ultimate Fighting. Love him or hate him, I love to hate him, he's a pretty good fighter. So Tim got his photo taken with him for me. It's not the greatest photo, but you get the idea.

So Close...

James is getting so close to crawling. He can't wait to keep up with Matthew. He is the cutest little kid.

Let's Get Organized...Organized!

Sometimes Matthew is a little more like me than I thought.

I am so proud!

Saturday Mornings

I love Saturday mornings, especially ones that Tim doesn't have class. We get to stay in bed a little longer and have cute little visitors keep us company.

Trick or Treat! Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat! If you don't, I don't care! I'll pull down your underwear!

No, I won't really pull down your underwear. I would actually prefer that you keep it on. And I wasn't one of those pesky kids that even said that whole line, I was pretty shy and could barely get "Trick or Treat" out in those days.

This morning as I'm putting up this post, I feel like such a loser mom. Below are literally the only pictures I took from last night. And Matthew was cute, like, a million more times.

Just before I snapped this photo I said, "Matthew, look up at mom so I can take your picture." Matthew loudly sighed and replied, "I'm Spider-Man, not Matthew." Oh.

Here is Matthew and a bunch of his second* cousins. He loves them. We even pretend like they come to our house. Sometimes I have to put imaginary Becca in time-out for hitting James. And then I have to put Matthew in time-out for hitting Becca. We need friends. I promise I won't put you in time-out.
Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

*I actually had to look up online to see how Matthew is related to these kids. I knew they were cousins, but how close of cousins? So I found a website and they are second cousins. Yes, I am a nerd, I've known it for almost my whole life. And now you know, and hopefully you will still be my friend because Matthew and I need friends, remember?

Primary Program 2007

Matthew had a part in his very first Primary program. He did so good! His speaking part was, "Faith is trust. I trust in Jesus Christ." He said it loud and clear. What a cute boy! I think his favorite part was singing Scripture Power. He loves that song, we sing it all the time at home.

It was so fun to see him so grown up.

It's Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!

We had an early Halloween party at Martha and Ted's house tonight.

We were told to come dressed up and we had a ghoulish meal.

My family dressed up from Spider-Man. As you can see, Matthew is Spidey (and I honestly think that when he puts the costume on, he believes he is Spider-Man), Tim is Peter Parker (he's way more good looking than ol' Tobey), James is J. Jonah Jameson (the boss at the newspaper), and I am Betty Brant, the secretary (in the comic book, she and Peter Parker had a thing. Scandalous!). We had lots of fun dressing up.

Kristen is a deranged bride and Donavon is Melaleuca Man.
Amy is Sleepy Girl and Colin is a preppy Frat boy.
Ted is a newspaper printer and Martha and her tiny pooch are "Best in Show."
Here is a close up of J. Jonah Jameson. We colored in his eyebrows and drew on a mustache. Unfortunately, he slobbers a lot and has a runny nose, so the mustache was slowly fading away. They don't show that in the movies.