Christmas 2009

The traditional opening of new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Here are the kids in their new pajamas. Everyone seems happy with what I picked out. Brandon in Buzz Lightyear, Jake in Airforce/airplanes and Emma in pink and cute.

Putting Santa's plate out with homemade cookies, carrotts for the reindeer and chocolate milk.
Brandon was given some reindeer food at his playgroup so he and Matt are putting it on a plate getting the food ready.
Here they are in the backyard putting the reindeer food out.

SANTA DELIVERS!!!

Jake with his favorite gift...LEGOS!!Emma and her favorite gift...Sketch pad and drawing pencils.

Brandon and his favorite...BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!!!Brandon's other Santa gift...Playdough.All the kids were given new pillowcases from Matt's mom. The pillowcases had each of the kids names on it, and if you look closely it also has sewn in glow in the dark thread "Did you think to pray?" I think these are so cool and the kids thought they were pretty neat too. They all slept with them on Christmas Eve.Now for my favorite Christmas gift. Matt and the kids had been working out in the garage for about a week on a homemade gift for me. I was banned from the garage and the office so I would not see the gift in progress. The picture below is the gift wrapped up. I had no idea what it was because they had done a great job at concealing the actual shape of my gift.

This is my gift. My friend Niccole had made this vinyl sign for me intended for me to just put directly on my wall like I had so many other times. However, this vinyl sign would not fit and I was very disappointed. So Matt made a frame and bought some plexiglass and put the vinyl on it for me. I have to say I was not at all surprised at how well it turned out. Matt is a very skilled craftsman. I love the sign and that Matt and the kids took the time and thought to make something that meant a lot to me. It will be soon hanging in my front room. I hope you can read what it says because I love it. After we opened all the gifts, we watched a lot of new movies, played lots of new games, and ate and ate. In the end it was a nice quiet Christmas, just the way we like it.

Jake's Wrestling Tournament

Here is a view of the gym with all the wrestling mats. There is room for 8 matches to go on at once. It gets pretty loud and crazy in the gym too. I still haven't decided if I like watching Jake wrestling. My maternal instincts kick in and I want to stop my kid from getting beat up. When he cries (which all the wrestlers do) I want to hug him and say "It's okay" and then another part of me wants to say "Suck it up and pin the kid!!".This post is actually about Jake's 2nd wrestling tournament. It was held at Legacy High School here in North Las Vegas. It was actually the same day Jake was baptized. He was done at 2pm ran home and showered and headed over to the stake center. That made for a crazy day.
Matt is one of the assistant coaches. This is what it looks like from my point of view watching Matt and another coach help Jake out on the mat.
Jake is trying to pin this kid....

and he does!!!!

After a wrestler wins a match they are suppose to sign the bout sheet and turn it in. Here is Jake with his winning bout sheet. He looks really excited he won huh?

Jake is actually doing pretty good for his first year. He can hold his own with kids who have wrestled for a year or two. He has gotten pinned a couple of times and plans on making sure that doesn't happen again.

Jake's baptism

Jake got baptized on December 5th. There we 5 kids from the stake getting baptized and Jake was the only one from our ward that was baptized that night. He was able to pick who he wanted to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, and who said the closing prayer. He also asked Emma to sing a song. It was a great afternoon/night filled with the spirit, lots of emotions and lots of family and friends. These 2 pictures are the only ones we took all night. I was so disappointed I didn't take pictures of all the family and friends who came and all the great food and fun we had at our house after the baptism.

I did want to mention all the Priesthood holders that were in the circle when Jake was confirmed, Jake was very particular about making sure certain people were in the circle.

Matt, Milo Medley, Bruce Summers, Michael Medley, Larry Ferguson, Jason Dean, Bishop Blackham, Mike Matthes, Monty Warr, Jason DeMille, and Richard Drew.

Road trip back to Las Vegas

On our way home we stopped to visit with Santa. This is Brandon's first year to really understand who Santa is... he sat on Santa's lap and told him he wanted a "Buzz Lightyear"and playdough. This particular Santa gave all the kids a small brown bag filled with peanuts and candy. When we were walking back to the car Brandon pointed to his brown bag and said "Is my Buzz in here?" So sweet and cute. He was not very happy that his Buzz was not in the bag.

We decided to take the scenic route home so we drove through Duck Creek and ended up in Cedar City. We have been to Duck Creek before and it is beautiful we just have never been there in a snow storm. We decided to stop and have lunch at a little cafe. The kids were able to decorate an ornament and hang it on the tree you see behind us.

While we were eating it continued to snow. By the time we were done there was a good amount of snow on the ground for Brandon to experience snow for the first time. We told him to touch the snow and see what it felt like. He touched it and then said "I want to go back to Las Vegas." Emma and Jake seemed to enjoy it though.

This is Brandon NOT enjoying the snow.

Here are just a few pictures of the beautiful snow covered mountains we drove through on our way home.

We kept wondering how many more miles until we would reach Cedar City. As you can see we never did find out since the sign was covered in snow. We also passed 2 snowplows. Makes you wonder if maybe we shouldn't have been on that road at the time...

It was a fun ride home. Well, at least for the kids and I. Matt might have a different opinion since he was the one driving in the snow.

Thanksgiving 2009

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving to be with Matt's family. Here is Emma and her cute cousins Radisyn and Kinley. This was our awesome feast that we all helped to make. Matt's sister Randi did all the decorations and it looked fantastic.

One of our Thanksgiving activities was going "shooting". Matt brought all of our guns up to Utah and we took Emma and Jake to go shoot them.

As you can see they were having a good time.

Matt enjoying himself.

Jake checking to see if my shot hit the bullseye or not. Probably NOT!!Everyone had a good time and wasted lots of ammunition.

More to come about our trip home.

A Thanksgiving Poem

I had to do sharing time yesteday. I decided to do the lesson on gratitude/thankfulness and compare our lives today with the lives of the pioneers. I think it turned out pretty well.

Here is the poem I read and gave to all the kids that summed up the point I was trying to get across.

I Think of Pioneers

Sometimes when I must walk to school, it seems a long, long way. I get to feeling tired and would like to stop and play. But then I think of pioneers who walked by sun and star; And suddenly my little walk doesn’t seem so far.

Sometimes on cold, dark winter nights I crawl beneath the sheet and wish I had a cozy place to warm my chilly feet. But then I think of pioneers who camped outside all night and only had a fire’s glow to give them warmth and light.

Sometimes when I am hungry and want something good to eat, my mother gives me carrots when I’d rather have a sweet. But then I think of pioneers who thanked God and were glad for anything at all to eat—my carrots aren’t so bad.

Sometimes when I have chores to do and I would rather play, I think of pioneers and know they worked most all the day. And so I guess I can’t complain about things that I must do, for when I think of pioneers, I’m very blessed—aren’t you?

By, Sandy Halvorson

Happy Thanksgiving.

36 facts for 36 years.

1. November 7th is my birthday
2. I had braces when I was teenager even though you can't tell now.
3. I went to Europe for 3 weeks with my high school choir.
4. I have 3 brothers, a half brother, 4 step-brothers and 1 step sister.
5. I rolled a brand new car 3 times.
6. I found out I was pregnant with Emma lying on a gurney in an E.R.
7. I went on a mission to Tacoma, Washington.
8. I went to Snow College in Ephraim, Utah.
9. I hate birds.
10. Everyone in my immediate family has a name that starts with "M".
11. When I was 3-11 years old my family owned a grocery store in rural Utah.
12. I was "Little Miss Market" in a 24th of July parade.
13. I don't eat melon of any sort.
14. I make lists constantly.
15. I have a terrible time with computers.
16. I met Matt in May of 1997, we were engaged on July 4, 1997 and married Sept. 27, 1997.
17. I have never been to Canada or Mexico.
18. My great-great grandfather is a full blood Indian.
19. I ditched school a lot in high school.
20. I have driven a semi-truck before.
21. My first job was working in a "Click photo booth" in the middle of a parking lot.
22. I have never colored my hair, ever.
23. I like watching Motocross racing.
24. My favorite movie is "The Man from Snowy River".
25. My favorite sports are softball and volleyball.
26. I didn't discover I had a half brother until I was 25.
27. I have been on a church history tour back east 2 times.
28. I have Thorasic Outlet Syndrome.
29. I love wild flowers.
30. In high school I would go to bed at 9pm.
31. I was 16 and on my first date when I kissed a boy for the first time.
32. My favorite animal is the platypus.
33. One day I hope to go to Australia to see a platypus.
34. Quakie Aspens are my favorite tree.
35. I talk to myself a lot.
36. I wanted to grow up and be a History teacher.

There you have it. 36 somewhat weird, interesting facts about me.

A day in the life...

I have a friend who documents her day once a month with pictures and commentary. I thought I would try it but minus all the pictures.

7:30am The day started out with getting the kids up for school. Making them breakfast which consisted of instant oatmeal and a glass of juice. I made their lunch and put a joke in it like I do everyday.
Once the kids were gone it was time to tackle some house cleaning. I started in the kitchen. Dishes, sweeping and mopping the floors. Then a bit of dusting and vacuuming. Bathrooms were on the list but I was running out of time before I needed to shower and get ready to take Brandon to speech class.

11am: I take Brandon to his speech class at Emma and Jake's school. While he is in his speech class I volunteer in Emma's classroom.

11:45am: Brandon comes out of speech class and his teacher tells me we need to talk...that is never good news. She tells me Brandon is having behavior issues in class. What? I wont go into the details but it was mostly him being stubborn, no hitting or anything like that. She tells me to talk to all of Brandon's other teachers, ie. Nursery and playgroup and she will talk to his other speech teacher and see how he behaves in her class.

12pm: I take the long way home which means it took me 5 minutes instead of 2 minutes and Brandon falls asleep. Could he have just been tired in speech? Possibly.
While Brandon sleeps I enjoy a quiet lunch. After that I make a batch of cookies for a friend's party Friday night, do a little stitching while they bake and watch CSI:NY recorded from last night.

1:30pm: Brandon wakes up and I make him some lunch. I talk on the phone to 2 different people, one of them being Brandon's nursery teacher.

2:30pm Continue with cleaning the house until the kids get home.

3:45pm: Talk to the kids a little about their day and have them get started on their homework.

4:30pm: I make an early dinner because Jake has a soccer game and we need to leave at 5:30pm.

5pm:Eat dinner with the kids and discover while talking to the kids that Emma won the school election and is now the Student Body Vice-President. I also learn that someone in her class stole her entire lunch. They left the lunch bag but took everything in her bag but her joke I put in there. Nice. The school ended up giving her a free lunch. I thought that was nice.

5:30pm: Leave for soccer fields.

6pm: Watch Jake make 3 out of the 4 goals for his team. Way to go Jake!!

7pm:Drive home and stop at Carl's Jr. for 2 large fries for the kids and I to share when we get home. Call Matt on the way home to tell him Jake made 3 goals. As we are driving home, Emma asks "Mom, what time is it?". I say "It is 7:18". Brandon says "No it isn't mommy, it is 7, 8, 9." I hope that sounds as funny in writing as it did in person. It was funny to us.

7:30pm Eat our yummy fries and then send the kids to the showers while I clean the kitchen again.

8pm: Sit down and watch a 1/2 TV show with the kids and by the time it is over Matt walks in the door. He has been gone for 2 days and we are all glad to see him.

8:30pm: Emma and Jake go to bed while Matt and Brandon play trains for 1/2 an hour. Read Brandon his books from the library that were suppose to be turned in Thursday. OOPS!

9pm:Brandon goes to bed and I get ready for bed. Matt and I watch a 1/2 hour show and talk for a few minutes. He goes downstairs to eat dinner and I read 2 chapters in a book called"So you want to raise a boy". The chapters covering 3 and 4 year olds, seeing if I can figure out what is going on with Brandon.

10pm. Lights out and I am asleep.

Halloween 2009

To start our Halloween festivities Brandon and I went to a pumpkin patch with some friends. We went to this same pumpkin patch last year and had a great time. However, this year he did not want to go on any of the fun stuff he just wanted his pumpkin. He played in the dirt and straw on the ground most of the time. Here he is posing with the pumpkins.This is the one ride he would go on. He rode it several times and despite the look on his face he really liked it. The kids did the usual school parties. I am learning that the older the kids get the less involved parents are in the classroom parties. Which actually makes me kind of sad.
Emma worked at the spook alley at the school's "Safe Street" on Thursday. The rest of us came to check it out after Jake's soceer game.
Halloween night the ward had "trunk or treat" that we went to and actually decorated our trunk for the first time ever. I know sad huh?
Here are the kids in their costumes this year. I have to say the best part of their costumes is how cheap they were to put together this year.
Brandon is a PIRATE. His costume was lent to us by a friend (Thank you Rachael Randall you are awesome!!) and I bought all his accesories for $2.
Emma is BELLATRIX LESTRANGE from Harry Potter. Her costume is a combination of 2 of her old costumes. The only thing I bought was the poster board for her sign and some black nail polish and black lipstick.
Jake is SNAKE EYES from G.I. Joe. His black jumpsuit was recycled from last year and we already had his sword. So his costume was FREE.
The best part is that everyone loved their costumes.

Here they are with all their candy. Thank goodness they didn't get as much as last year.

Words of Wisdom

I wanted to share some words of wisdom I was recently given by my dear Aunt Linda. I have been working on my Young Women's Personal Progress to receive my medallion. ( I never got it as a teenager.) One of the goals said "Ask a mother that you admire what she thinks are important attributes for being a mother. I quickly thought of my Aunt Linda. She is an amazing mother and has raised 5 wonderful, talented, strong children. The last of her children just returned home from his mission. Aunt Linda is a seasoned mother, she really knows what she is talking about. She has always been so sweet and kind to my family and has really filled a void in my life since my mom passed away. I always enjoy talking with her and love to hear her opinions on life etc. So here is her thoughts on the important attributes for being a good mother. Enjoy.

Of course, my opinion might differ from the rest of the world, since I believe the gospel is at the heart of developing anything good.
1.LIVE THE GOSPEL First and foremost, try to live the gospel consistently and try to teach your children to do the same, preferably by example. That should include daily prayer and scripture study, FHE, church attendance, temple attendance, etc. As you do this, you will come to be aware of your own weaknesses...that leads to understanding both your own problems and the possibility that your children (and husband) have problems, too. That leads to compassion and understanding.

2. LOVE YOUR CHILDREN That's not really hard to do, but sometimes it is. When those "special" moments occur, don't kill your kids! Carefully pick and choose what you are willing to fall on your sword about--most things aren't really that serious. If you're keeping a gospel-centered home, you can address a lot of issues prior to them ever happening in your family during family scripture study or FHE. Take advantage of teaching moments to have a good talk with your kids, both individually and as a group. Be there! When your kids are performing, speaking, involved in sports, etc. Be there! Also, make sure you express love for and continually touch and hug your kids--I always tried to especially do this during church (put my arm around each one--rub their backs--etc.), so that they would relate going to church with a loving family and always have a warm feeling about it. Of course, (again, you already do this) HAVE FUN WITH THEM! Do cute service things together (doorbell ditch and leave treats, food, etc. for others)--they'll always remember.

3.LOVE THEIR DAD This one can be tough, sometimes. Dads don't get as much practice as mothers in dealing with children, so they can sometimes blow it. Teach by example. They can learn. Quietly take them aside when they blow it and gently explain how they might otherwise have handled the situation. Don't correct them in front of the kids unless it is devistatingly out of control (then in private, ask your husband what the HECK is going on!!!). Make sure they attend as many of the kids' functions with you as humanly possible. When the kids come to you complaining about Dad, gently explain to them that Dad is doing the best he can and that he loves them. Try not to take the kids' sides, but show understanding. Go to the temple with hubby frequently.

4.PUSH YOUR KIDS TO EXCELLENCE Yes...I said PUSH. Demand excellence from them by enthusiasm and by creating a family expectation for excellence. Encourage, encourage, encourage, praise, praise, praise. Help them to see what they can do and help them to do it (without taking over completely). Recognize the differences and unique abilities in each child and push for them to hit their best level of accomplishment. Celebrate achievement as a family. Make a big deal out of their grades and don't fail to explain how good grades ensure a good future.

5.FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHAT YOU ARE DOING OK--here's a tricky but important one. YOU have to acknowledge to yourself that you're doing a good job. Teach your kids to express gratitude to you (and their dad, but especially you!) for what you are doing so that you also receive positive feedback from them as they grow up. This pays off in a big way, since you will spend several years primarily with the kids and you may at times feel unappreciated--those kids will fill the need you have for acknowledgement if you've done a good job of teaching them gratitude. Look at your own accomplishments and acknowledge your development. Develop your own talents so that the kids see that you, too, are always pursuing something. Visualize yourself as a competent, compassionate and calm woman and mother. Practice seeing yourself reacting to situations in the way that you want to be able to handle them. Working it out in your head will translate into being able to do it in reality when the time comes.

Thanks Aunt Linda for your words of wisdom.

Jake's Soccer Game Highlights

Jake has been playing in the Stake Soccer League. He is pretty good if I do say so myself. Judge for yourself as you watch the video clip.

Jake's Birthday Party!

For Jake's birthday party he invited two of his friends to sleep over and then Matt took them to Logandale to go riding in the Rhino.
This is Jake and his 2 best buddies. They came over Friday night and ate pizza, a lot of pizza. Later they had rootbeer floats and homemade doughtnuts per Jake's request. They stayed in Jake's room most of the night hanging out and playing with the new toys the boys gave him for his birthday. It made for a quiet evening.

As I mentioned Jake wanted homemade doughnuts instead of cake. So I made them for him and then I had to figure out how to put 8 candles into a pile of doughnuts. Here is how it turned out.

I missed taking a picture when he blew out his candles so I ask Jake to recreate the moment for me. I think he made it quite believable. What do you think?

Saturday morning the boys were up by 6:45am. So we got up and made them breakfast, packed their lunch and snacks and got things packed up in the truck.

They actually saw a tortosie walking in the sand when they were out riding. The boys thought that was pretty cool. There was also a lot of rock throwing and rolling down sandy hills. You know the usual boy stuff.
This is the boys ready to get going standing in front of the Rhino.

They got home around 4pm. After dropping of his friends Jake and Matt quickly got cleaned up and headed out to buy Jake his new bike. He has been saving up for quite some time to pay for half of his bike. As soon as they got home he and Matt made a few adjustments to the bike and Jake rode it until alomost 9pm when we told him he had to come in the house.

Here he is with his new sweet ride.

I asked Jake "How was your birthday?" His response was "I loved it. It was awesome. It was the best birthday ever!"

I say "Mission accomplished".

Jake turns 8!!

For Jake's birthday this year I thought I would post some pictures of him in his younger years and some fun memories. (Again none before 2005 when our digital world began.)

This picture was taken at the L.A. Zoo. Jake is standing near the flamingos and judging by his facial expression he does not like the smell. We laugh about this picture all the time.

This is one of my favorites. He was so proud of himself learning to write his name and sound words out. It says "I LF U MOM" That means "I love you mom". In case you couldn't figure it out.

A handsome little man on Easter.


This picture is from his 4th birthday party. As you can see it is a Batman party. Jake wanted to send his Grandpa's invitations even though he knew they could not come. My dad lived in Utah 8 hours away and Matt's dad was in Iraq. My dad came anyway without telling us and surprised us. We answered the door and there stood my awesome dad dressed as Batman. The best part was when we asked Jake "Who is that?" (thinking he would say Grandpa) he said "It's Batman!!"

The next picture is of Jake riding his quad with all his riding gear. He loves to ride.
Random picture of his silliness.
Jake and I at his Kindergarten "Mother's Day Tea Party" He had to draw a picture of what I look like and fill out a form about my favorite things.
A picture of him at the beach one summer. He really liked going to the beach even though we didn't go very often.


This is Jake on his 7th birthday loving his new LEGOS. Notice the missing tooth.

My handsome son!!

It is truly hard to believe that Jake is 8 years old. It seems like just a short time ago he was colicky and not sleeping through the night. He has turned into a little man. He is so smart and really enjoys learning new things and hanging out with his dad. He is a good big brother to Brandon and more often than not he and Emma have a lot of fun together.

Lately he has been noticing other kids who need a friend and trying to make them feel special even if no one else does. I love watching him be mindful of others. Jake is always ready to give me a hug and loves to share his day at school with me. He is a great son and we are truly blessed to have him in our family. As we say in our house "Jake makes my heart happy."

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY JAKE!!!